Bryansk region was bombed out of sporting interest

“Kommersant” became aware of the details of yesterday’s crash of a Ukrainian plane in the Bryansk region. Shortly before him, two light aircraft dropped two air bombs on the local Rosrezerv plant. This attack did not bring any casualties or serious damage, but the 67-year-old pilot, who was in pair second, was forced to make a hard landing in the field after it. He tried to escape by hiding a machine gun with cartridges and a bulletproof vest nearby, but was detained.

In the morning of Wednesday, April 5, two sports planes dropped two shells on the territory of the Slava plant of the Federal Reserve Agency in the village of Lesnoye, Surazh district, Bryansk region. The enterprise is located more than 70 km from the Chernihiv region of Ukraine and about 20 km from the Mogilev region of Belarus.

There were no casualties or serious damage as a result of the attack. The investigators who arrived at the scene removed fragments of aerial bombs with a diameter of 200-220 mm from two craters half a meter deep and two and a half meters deep. The territory adjacent to the place where the bombs fell was cordoned off, local roads were blocked.

Less than an hour later, the police were informed about the landing of an Aeroprakt A-22 Flying Fox light aircraft in a field between the villages of Kivai and Butovsk in the Klintsovsky district of the Bryansk region adjacent to Surazhsky. According to public maps, the landing site is south of the bombed-out facility, about 40 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.

Apparently, the crash happened while returning from a mission. According to initial information, the plane could catch on the wires of the power line.

There was one person on the plane. After landing, according to eyewitnesses, he ran towards the village of Kivai. The personnel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were brought to the number one readiness level. To search for the pilot, four groups were formed and six barrage posts were set up. Thanks to their work with local residents, the police soon received important information: employees of the Starodubets agricultural enterprise reported that they had seen a man in camouflage walking along the road. After receiving a tip, employees of the Klintsy department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, together with operatives from the regional FSB and the border department of the department, detained the pilot.

It turned out to be 67-year-old native of Kharkov Alexei Morozov. On the spot, he explained to the operatives that he was a civil aviation pilot. According to him, he was surveying the area and checking the work of the Ukrainian air defense. The flight took place as part of a pair with another civilian pilot at an altitude of 50 m, Mr. Morozov was the pilot of the second aircraft. “The task was this: to fly at low altitude behind the leader and, at the command of the leader, take a picture when he says,” the pilot said. Aircraft took off from an aircraft chemical plant in the Kyiv region. He was promised 50,000 hryvnias for his work. The crash, he said, was due to a broken propeller.

Employees of the National Guard and operatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs cordoned off the landing site of the aircraft. 75 employees, including two snipers, and 20 pieces of equipment were involved in the search and detention of the pilot of the aircraft.

Not far from the ship, a Kalashnikov assault rifle hidden by the pilot, two magazines with cartridges and a bulletproof vest were found, and two electronic tablets, two video cameras, notepads with notes and a projectile release lever handle were seized from the aircraft.

Mr. Morozov explained to the operatives that he hid the machine gun, fearing that members of the Ukrainian territorial defense would find it. The man allegedly did not know that he was flying over the territory of Russia. He denies taking part in dropping the bombs.

Alexander Morozov, a pilot from Kharkov, was featured in media reports as a volunteer helping with the delivery of doctors to patients by plane. He learned to fly at the age of 50, after which he bought a plane and built an airfield. In 2014, he took out the wounded Ukrainian soldiers who participated in the conflict with the DPR and LPR, and in 2015, in the absence of state air ambulance, he began to work as a “flying ambulance”.

After his detention in Russia, a procedural decision will be made against him. The detainee faces a term for illegally crossing the state border (Article 322 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and terrorism (Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), cases under the latter article, as a rule, are initiated after attacks on objects in Russia by Ukraine. However, given that Ukraine almost never includes downed Russian pilots in exchange transactions, Aleksey Morozov can be returned to his homeland for one of them.