Maksim Kuzminov, a Russian helicopter pilot who has defected to Ukraine, will receive $500,000 in reward, the Ukrainian and Romanian press reported. In April 2022, Ukraine’s parliament passed a law offering up to $1 million to Russian military personnel who manage to transfer equipment to Ukraine. The size of the reward depends on the type of equipment they hand over, kyivindependent.com said.
The defection was the result of a long-term operation by the HUR, Ukraine’s military-intelligence agency, to bring the Mi-8 helicopter and its pilot to Ukraine.
The 28-year-old pilot spoke at a press conference on the operation on September 5 and explained that he defected because he “did not want to contribute” to the crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, which he believes is a “wonderful country. He said that he contacted the Ukrainian side himself, and was told he would receive security for himself and his family, payments, and new documents from Ukraine if he defected. He noted that his parents supported his plans to defect and have joined him in Ukraine.
Kuzminov detailed how he arranged his defection with Ukrainian intelligence operatives, who said they spent six months planning the operation. Kuzminov said he took his chance while flying close to the border one day. He said he transmitted his location to Ukraine’s military, then landed at a base about 186 miles away from the frontline. During the final stage of the operation, the pilot got injured but received medical treatment on time.
“There were two crew members with me. We didn’t have any weapons, our pilots fly without weapons,” Kuzminov told reporters at the press conference in Kyiv. “Nobody could put up any resistance,” he said, because he was the only one who knew how to fly the hijacked Russian chopper. The other two crew members refused to surrender. They ran away from the helicopter towards the border and were killed.
The pilot assured journalists that no one coerced him into doing anything as the decision was deliberate and independent. He added that he was engaged in the transportation of troops and cargo across Russia during the full-scale war, adding that he never launched strikes on Ukraine.
According to Censor.NET, the helicopter remained intact as a result of the operation and will join the Ukrainian air fleet after its equipment is examined in detail.
Kuzminov noted that he no longer has contact with other Russian soldiers he served with, but would like to convey to them that there are no fascists or Nazis in Ukraine, as Russian propaganda claims.
The story was featured in the documentary “Downed Russian Pilots”, which aired on Ukrainian television on the evening of September 3. The film revealed how the landing was planned and carried out and Kuzminov called on other Russian pilots to follow his lead.
“If you do what I did, this kind of thing, you will not regret it at all. You will be provided for the rest of your life with absolutely everything,” Kuzminov said.
Kuzminov provided “valuable evidence about Russia’s army aviation, communication systems, and airfield network,” according to the documentary.
According to the European press, Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military intelligence agency, when asked about the future of the Russian turncoat, said that in the Ukrainian army there are unites consisting of former citizens of the Russian Federation and even of current citizens of the Russian Federation, who condemned the criminal war by Putin’s Russia against Ukraine and today, with arms in their hands, they fight against the regime of Putin, for freedom and for the independence of Ukraine.
