Ukraine Army eliminates Russia’s best helicopter pilot

The relevant statement was made by the 93rd Separate Kholodnyi Yar Mechanized Brigade on Facebook, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“Soldier Artur Illiuk, a serviceman from our brigade, fired an accurate shot with the Igla man-portable air-defense system and eliminated the best helicopter pilot of the Russian Aerospace Forces, colonel Vasiliy Kleshchenko. Kleshchenko served as a deputy head of the occupier country’s 344th Center for Combat Employment and Retraining of Personnel of Army Aviation. Last year, during the Victory Day parade in Moscow, he operated the Ka-52 ‘Alligator’ helicopter and led the parade. Now, the intelligence officers have recovered his body and handed it over for exchange,” the report states.

Russia’s Ka-52 ‘Alligator’ helicopter was shot down back in April 2022. It crashed in front of the brigade’s positions near the village of Husarivka, Balakliia District, Kharkiv Region. But, an intelligence team of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry gained access to the crash site in June only.

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