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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| ‘The impossible': Ukraine's secret, deadly rescue missions |
| 2022-06-21 |
| KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — As was his habit before each flight, the veteran Ukrainian army pilot ran a hand along the fuselage of his Mi-8 helicopter, caressing the heavy transporter’s metal skin to bring luck to him and his crew. They would need it. Their destination — a besieged steel mill in the brutalized city of Mariupol — was a death trap. Some other crews didn’t make it back alive. Still, the mission was vital, even desperate. Ukrainian troops were pinned down, their supplies running low, their dead and injured stacking up. Their last-ditch stand at the Azovstal mill was a growing symbol of Ukraine’s defiance in the war against Russia. They could not be allowed to perish. The 51-year-old pilot — identified only by his first name, Oleksandr — flew just the one mission to Mariupol, and he considered it the most difficult flight of his 30-year-career. He took the risk, he said, because he didn’t want the Azovstal fighters to feel forgotten. In the charred hell-scape of that plant, in an underground bunker-turned-medical station that provided shelter from death and destruction above, word started reaching the wounded that a miracle might be coming. Among those told that he was on the list for evacuation was a junior sergeant who’d been shredded by mortar rounds, butchering his left leg and forcing its amputation above the knee. "Buffalo" was his nom de guerre. He had been through so much, but one more deadly challenge loomed: escape from Azovstal. A series of clandestine, against-the-odds, terrain-hugging, high-speed helicopter missions to reach the Azovstal defenders in March, April and May are being celebrated in Ukraine as among the most heroic feats of military derring-do of the four-month war. Some ended in catastrophe; each grew progressively riskier as Russian air defense batteries caught on. The full story of the seven resupply and rescue missions has yet to be told. But from exclusive interviews with two wounded survivors; a military intelligence officer who flew on the first mission; and pilot interviews provided by the Ukrainian army, The Associated Press has pieced together the account of one of the last flights, from the perspective of both the rescuers and the rescued. Only after more than 2,500 defenders who remained in the Azovstal ruins had started surrendering did Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy first give wind of the missions and their deadly cost. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #7 Disgusting pathetic Hollywood style shilling narrative. "We were coming in from the North...below their radar." |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2022-06-21 15:54 |
| #6 Bless your heart |
| Posted by: Frank G 2022-06-21 15:45 |
| #5 It’s not about linguistic style…it’s about,, mental health…style..and morals, and realistic view of reality, rantburg continuous aggregation of pro criminal joe biden government narrative, is shilling for a lie. And anytime a pot of crap is thrown on the face of the educated and ‘’civil’’ brainwashed fools the loudest always shows off their grammatical snobby faces |
| Posted by: Aca Joe 2022-06-21 15:05 |
| #4 Observation: the linguistic skills diminish when the spittle flies That is a problem with monkey-brain behavior. It feels good to yell and hoot with your tribe and fling pooh at The Other Guys who, by the way, totally suck. You get a big endorphin rush and it feels soo good. Yeah, baby! Unfortunately, when you are running at that level, your higher brain functions are inaccessible and any kind of analytic thinking goes out the window. Pity. tl;dr: Once the name-calling starts, posts get stupid. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2022-06-21 14:37 |
| #3 I dunno. My experience is people who have reason to be in a good mood are, what? Garrulous? Voluble? The unhappy? Not so much... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2022-06-21 14:15 |
| #2 Observation: the linguistic skills diminish when the spittle flies |
| Posted by: Frank G 2022-06-21 14:11 |
| #1 Disgusting pathetic Hollywood style shilling narrative…dude Russia has won the war, and soon everywhere in Europe and the USA people will spit on the face of the Russophobic people like the one pushing this sort of BS, sort like a cherry on the top, Europeans will be forcing their governments to do business with the Russians,Chinese, Indian, and African countries, revengefully kicking the Anglo/Americans disgusting businesses homosexuals culture out of their countries. No more Nato, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, or fat woke green purple hair Americans in spandex..…anywhere in Europe. |
| Posted by: Aca Joe 2022-06-21 12:39 |