The Ukrainian military reported the capture of the pilot of a Russian Su-25 FROGFOOT ground attack aircraft, shot down on June 17. The pilot admitted to being a former Russian Air Force Major who had taken a job as a mercenary for the Wagner PMC and had flown several combat missions during the war. This is stated in the intelligence update of the British Ministry of Defense on Twitter.
Thus, the department noted that the use of retired employees, who are now working under a contract with Wagner, to carry out direct aviation support tasks indicates that the Russian Air Force is probably struggling to support the invasion of Ukraine with a sufficient number of crews.
This is probably due to the combination of an insufficient number of properly trained personnel in Russia and its combat losses, according to British intelligence.
It is reported that during the tasks, the Russian pilot used commercial GPS devices rather than Russian military navigation equipment.
"This likely indicates that Wagner aircraft are older models of the Su-25 and that the Russian air force is not providing Wagner with up-to-date avionics equipment," the report said.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on the night of Friday, June 24, a military transport aircraft Il-76 crashed in Russia near Ryazan due to an engine malfunction. Four people were killed, five more were injured.
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