Russia has announced that they have detained a pilot of a Ukrainian light aircraft that crashed in the Bryansk region.
This was reported by the Russian propaganda media TASS.
According to reports, Russian border guards arrested the pilot of the Ukrainian light aircraft who was attempting to escape. The aircraft reportedly crashed in the Bryansk region for unknown reasons, according to Russian media.
“Officers of the Border Service of the FSB of Russia in the Bryansk region on April 5, 2023, recorded a violation of the state border with Ukraine into the Russian Federation by a Ukrainian light aircraft. The plane crashed for unknown reasons in the area of the Butovsk settlement of the Bryansk region. The pilot (a citizen of Ukraine), who was attempting to escape to Ukrainian territory, was detained by a border patrol,” the special services report said.
The Russian special services state that “regarding the foreigner, a review is being conducted” and that based on the results, “a procedural decision will be made.”
Russian Telegram channels have published photos of the supposedly detained man and the damaged aircraft, as well as a video of the pilot being interrogated. Also, according to the Russians, a bulletproof vest and an automatic weapon were allegedly found near the crashed plane.
In the video published by the channel, the man identified himself as Oleksandr Morozov. He says that he works privately as a civil pilot and has not flown since the beginning of the war. According to the Russians, the man had no documents on him. He also says on the video that the bulletproof vest and automatic weapon belong to him, and he allegedly received them before the flight “for safety.”
According to the Russians, the man was allegedly offered a flight at an altitude of 50 meters with takeoff in the Kyiv region (he was supposed to fly behind another aircraft) to check the work of the Ukrainian air defense and make an aerial survey of the specified area. He was supposedly to receive 50,000 hryvnias for this. In the video, the man also says that he did not know that he had entered the territory of the Russian Federation, as his tablet malfunctioned.
Russian propaganda media claim that Morozov supposedly learned to fly at the age of 50 by undergoing training in the late 2000s. He then purchased a small aircraft and later “decided to build an airfield and fly from it for his pleasure”.
They also assert that during the conflict in Donbas, he transported wounded Ukrainian soldiers to hospitals and patrolled the border in the Kharkiv region. Russians also claim that a volunteer organization of pilots called “Civil Air Patrol” operates on the airfield created by Morozov, whose pilots participate in combat operations.
It should be noted that there is indeed a Ukrainian NGO called “Civil Air Patrol”, and among its founders is a pilot named Oleksandr Morozov.
