Video reveals deadly missions to supply besieged fighters
President Zelensky pays tribute to ‘hero’ pilots risking their lives to save trapped Mariupol soldiers
The Ukrainian Mi8 helicopters are flying so low to the ground their landing gear practically skims the turf. The pilots bounce around in the cockpit as they speed over the sea.
Approaching their destination, the extraordinary risks of the mission become clear: out of one window can be seen the cranes of the Russia-controlled port of Mariupol.
The aircraft lands and a soldier wearing the blue armband of Ukrainian forces waves frantically, urging the troops inside to disembark.
At least five can be seen jumping to the ground, one with what seems to be a rocket-launcher strapped to his back.
The next shot of the video reveals the fate of the soldiers.
They have landed in the ruins of the Azovstal steel plant, part of resupply and reinforcement missions so dangerous that Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, last week said they were close to suicidal.
The pilots fly out over charred and ruined buildings, one holding the radar screen to keep steady.
The footage, published by the Telegram channel Dnipro Operative News, shows the nature of the operations that helped the steel plant’s defenders hold out for weeks against a brutal Russian siege.
Andriy Biletsky, a co-founder of the Azov Battalion, which formed the core of the steelworks’ defenders, hailed the heroism of the helicopter pilots in flying through Russian-dominated airspace to resupply the surrounded fighters. “We can see the maximum professionalism of Ukrainian pilots. There’s no resemblance to the Black Hawks, Americans have never entered so deep into enemy-controlled territories, 100km deep into a territory with intense anti-aircraft defence, patrolling aeroplanes, and so on. This makes this operation unique in the history of humanity.”
Following the surrender of the Azovstal defenders last month, Ukrainian officials have begun to share details about how its soldiers were able to defend the besieged plant for so long. Over a period of weeks, 16 Mi-8 helicopters flew seven resupply missions, carrying critical weapons, reinforcements, food, water and medical supplies, according to major-general Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s head of defence intelligence.
The twin-turbine ex-soviet helicopters can carry up to 30 troops or four tons of supplies, suggesting their cargo may have made all the difference for the besieged soldiers.
Last week, Mr Zelensky hailed the heroism of the pilots, some of whom were killed on the resupply missions.
“Helicopter pilots for many weeks were flying there knowing that 90 per cent do not return … to give food, water and weapons to Azovstal defenders and took away the wounded.
We lost many pilots. They are absolutely heroic,” Mr Zelensky said.
The pilots faced high mortality rates because of the strong Russian air defences over Mariupol, he said.
Gen Budanov later said that all the flights managed to disembark supplies.
“All deliveries were successful,” he told the War Zone website.
But two helicopters were shot down on the fifth and seventh sorties, he said, and a third was destroyed when it went to the aid of a downed helicopter.
Ukrainian officials kept tight-lipped about resupply missions during the siege. Publicising details of deliveries had tipped off Russian forces, General Oleksiy Hromov told journalists on May 11. “As a result, the enemy took measures to strengthen the air defence system, which … led to the loss of personnel and helicopters that evacuated the wounded.”
For Russian forces invading Ukraine on Feb 24, the southeastern port city of Mariupol was a strategic target that would enable it to link the occupied Crimean Peninsula with pro-russian separatist-controlled territory in the Donetsk region on the Russian border.
Ukraine’s dogged defence of the city stretched into months, with fighters retreating to the sprawling Azovstal plant as Russian forces occupied the rest of Mariupol.
Until their surrender on May 20, the Azovstal defenders pinned down Russian forces that would have otherwise been attacking in the Donbas region. Their tenacious last stand provided potent propaganda to Ukraine while burnishing the reputation of the Azov fighters.
The group formed as a volunteer militia in 2014 to fight Russian-backed separatists but has since been integrated into the Ukrainian army.
‘We lost many pilots. They are absolutely heroic’