Seth Pecksniff posted:

Daily beast saying that a flight attendant on the plane called her mom before the flight and said there were "strange repairs" being made before it

https://www.thedailybeast.com/prigozhin-jet-flight-attendant-reported-strange-repairs-before-crash

I think the only thing we do know is we know very little

Geisladisk posted:

I think the point is as much political as practical. Much like the Moscow drone attacks, even if the damage they do is too small to matter, it undermines the trust in the regime and support for the war by bringing it "home". Remember, Crimea is supposed to be Russian territory, and now Ukraine is putting boots on the ground there and causing havoc, and Crimea is no longer safe? Your average Russian holidaygoer in Crimea isn't going to feel safe there anymore. They are always going to have the possibility of Ukrainian troops showing up on their nice beaches at the back of their head. Even if the possibility is remote, it is now no longer impossible.

Seth Pecksniff posted:

https://twitter.com/maldr0id/status/1694691379685855507/photo/1

zone posted:

Seth Pecksniff posted:

https://twitter.com/maldr0id/status/1694691379685855507/photo/1

Seth Pecksniff posted:

https://twitter.com/maldr0id/status/1694691379685855507/photo/1

Tarquinn posted:

Tarquinn posted:

Tarquinn posted:

quote:

A Russian pilot defected to Ukraine on Wednesday, taking his helicopter with him, officials say.

Ukraine's head of military intelligence told RFE/RL that the pilot's crew members were taken by surprise.

They members freaked out and tried to run away before being killed, the official said.

The Russian pilot who defected by landing a Mi-8 helicopter at a Ukrainian air base on Wednesday took the rest of his crew by surprise, Ukraine's head of military intelligence said.

The crew did not know what was going on or where they were when they landed, said the head of Ukraine's main Directorate of Intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the US-funded outlet.

The operation leaves Ukraine with a valuable piece of equipment it can now use against Russia. Ukraine has offered large rewards to defecting Russians who bring equipment with them — though it's unclear whether this pilot was paid.

When it occurred to the two crew members that they were in Ukraine, almost 200 miles from the front line, they started to freak out and tried to run, Budanov told RFE/RL.

Ukraine's military intelligence agency told the Kyiv Post that the helicopter crew members were unwilling to surrender and were consequently "eliminated."

Budanov told RFE/RL they were killed in their escape attempt. He said Ukraine would have liked to spare their lives but had no choice.

The remarkable defection was the result of a six-month secret plot, a spokesperson for Ukraine's directorate of military intelligence told local media.

Budanov said in the RFE/RL interview that the operation was one of the best his agency had ever pulled off.

"The pilot feels great, everything is fine," Budanov told RFE/RL.

He added that the helicopter was in Kyiv.

The Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov said in a Facebook post on Wednesday the aircraft was "completely intact" and would join the Ukrainian Armed Forces after a detailed examination of its equipment.

Though the Kyiv Post reported that Russian propaganda outlets said the helicopter landed in Ukraine by mistake, Butusov said in an earlier Facebook post that there was very little chance of that.

He said the helicopter landed about 186 miles away from the front line. The helicopter model typically flies at a low altitude and slow speed and would have had to use a lot of extra fuel to make the journey, he said.

This would make disorientation an extremely unlikely explanation, he concluded.

Along with the helicopter, the pilot brought the parts of Su-27 and Su-30SM fighter jets, the Kyiv Post reported.

weg posted:

Putin is making GBS threads himself trying to figure out how to convince angry Wagnerites of this .

Seth Pecksniff posted:

AP reporting that the crash was intentionally caused by an explosion

shadow puppet of a posted:

Why are they sitting on the announcement that Shoigu’s PMC will inherit all Wagner assets down to the last man, gross bacon ration pack, cock, mosin and Embrarer long term warranty service plan?

Karate Bastard posted:

Out of the two alternatives where Prigozhin 1) stays alive to pillage and rape in Africa, and 2) gets blown the gently caress out of the sky by a lovely tyrant, I think option 2 is objectively better.

Sophy Wackles posted:

I would have assumed Putin would be blaming the Ukrainians with a wink and a nod.

Rad Russian posted:

It's probably worse now for the long-term chance to get rid of Putin.

zone posted:

AFAIK the plane looked relatively intact when it was falling, but missing both its wings

The Last Call posted:

Closer vid of the plane going down:

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1694410409569104026

naem posted:

Pot Smoke Phoenix posted:

So, I isolated the video, made it larger in size and cut it so the camera isn't swinging around all over the place and it sure loving looks like it just literally dropped right out of the sky

TulliusCicero posted:

That's what I mean: that plane lost all momentum, instantaneously

The engine got blown