Captured Wagner Group pilot says ‘Russian aircraft have big problems with navigation’

Captured Wagner Group pilot says 'Russian aircraft have big problems with navigation'

Captured Wagner Group pilot says 'Russian aircraft have big problems with navigation'. Image: Facebook Ukraine MoD

A PILOT from the Wagner Group – a network of mercenaries and a de facto private army of Russian President Vladimir Putin – who was captured by soldiers of Ukraine’s 72nd Mechanised Brigade has said that the navigation systems on Russian aircraft are a big problem, continuing rumours that Russia is using old equipment in Ukraine.

After a Soviet Igla anti-aircraft missile system shot down a Russian Su-25 aircraft near Svetlodarsk on June 18, Ukrainian soldiers were able to capture a hired Wagner Group mercenary, who complained about Russian military equipment.

The man captured, Andriy Volodymyrovych Fedorchukov, admitted during interrogation that he was a mercenary of the private military Wagner Group and was hired to kill Ukrainians for a salary of 205,000 rubles a month.

During interrogation, Fedorchukov said that he was hired to bomb a base housing Ukrainian Armed Forces and would drop bombs on Ukrainian cities along the way.

However, Fedorchukov said that “Russian aircraft have big problems with navigation” and admitted to using a “Garmin navigator and a smartphone with the Pronebo program to have more accurate navigation than the on-board navigation system”.

The Wagner Group are struggling to make an impact in Ukraine for President Putin.

On Thursday, June 9, Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed a base housing Wagner Group mercenaries in the town of Kadiivka in Luhansk Oblast, which has been under occupation since 2014.

Prior to that, Ukraine’s army destroyed a large unit of the Wagner Group in the Donbas region on Tuesday, May 31 and as a result, Russian soldiers were reportedly too afraid to fight in Ukraine after word of the Wagner Group mercenaries’ demise spread.


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Written by

Matthew Roscoe

Originally from the UK, Matthew is based on the Costa Blanca and is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

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