I hope Ukraine makes a big deal about this and heralds the pilot as a hero to possibly encourage other Russians to do the exact same thing.
Any way to read this without being a subscriber?
A Russian pilot who recently vanished along with his Mi-8 chopper and entire crew is actually in Ukraine after defecting as part of a six-month special operation, Ukrainian intelligence officials said Wednesday.
Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate, confirmed in televised comments that the Russian military helicopter had landed at a Ukrainian air base. Sources in Ukrainian intelligence cited by Ukrainska Pravda said the pilot had been “lured” into Ukraine in the culmination of a months-long special operation.
His family had been evacuated to Ukraine ahead of time, according to the report, and along with the Russian chopper, Ukraine acquired the cargo that he had been transporting: spare parts for the Russian military’s fighter jets.
Two other crew members who were on board with the pilot reportedly had no idea the chopper was landing in Ukraine, and there are conflicting reports on their fate. Ukrainska Pravda reports that the two were “liquidated” during the special operation, while other reports suggested they had surrendered and Yusov cryptically said “work is underway with the crew.”
Moscow has yet to comment on the claims, but Kremlin-connected Telegram channels confirmed that a Russian chopper went missing recently. The Flightbomber Telegram channel on Wednesday said the Mi-8 vanished “a couple weeks ago” but insisted that the crew had simply “lost their bearings” and accidentally landed in Ukraine.
“Having understood where they landed, they tried to take off, but they were gunned down in the helicopter on the ground,” the channel claimed, saying the pilot is probably still alive but being “brutally worked over” by the Ukrainian military.
“And I ask all normal people, until the opposite is proven, don’t spread any other versions, because there cannot be any other versions.”
Pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov, a former adviser to Putin, also appealed to people not to believe the “false” claim that the pilot “switched to the Ukrainian side” in a statement on Telegram, claiming the pilot is being “tortured” into saying he did.
Other pro-Kremlin Telegram channels called for a prisoner swap to bring the pilot and any surviving crew members back.
“Guys, we believe that you are alive, we’re waiting for you at home,” said one popular channel.
I can but im running no script.
I love NoScript
so do I but im not sure if that is why it just showed up for me. its just the only thing I could think of that I use that might cause it.
NoScript might disable a script that runs a "subscription required" popup.
A community for discussing events around the World
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/