Russia claims several Mi-8s, Il-76s stolen from it, which helped AFU

Defense Express writes this.

Russian specialized resources report that the FSB conducted searches in the so-called Rosaviatsiya, also known as the Federal Air Transport Agency, which is responsible for the civil air transport segment in general and for state property in this segment in particular.

Russian security forces claim that due to the actions of the Federal Air Transport Agency employees, 59 aircraft were illegally removed from Russian jurisdiction from March 2022 to June 2023, 36 of which were sold abroad, and 8 of which were sold to “unfriendly countries.”

At the same time, several illegally removed and exported aircraft began to assist Ukraine in repelling Russia's invasion, and here we are talking about several units of Mi-8 helicopters and Il-76 transport aircraft.

Three of these Mi-8 helicopters allegedly took part in combat operations as part of the Ukrainian Defense Forces, and the IL-76 transporters "flew with the defendants' radars turned off, which allows them to conceal information about the routes." In other words, the Russian security forces said that the withdrawn Il-76s could have been used to deliver weapons and equipment to Ukraine, but they could not prove it.

“In general, the above plot of the accusation looks more than a little strange. Because the aforementioned Rosaviatsiya is responsible only for civilian air transportation, it is unlikely that the very rare episodes when the Russian military drove their Mi-8s and surrendered to Ukraine would fall under this case. It is also quite difficult to imagine a situation where civilian Mi-8s ‘roam’ from the territory of the Russian Federation and then end up on our land to destroy the invaders,” Defense Express points out.

Therefore, we should not exclude the possibility that the Russian FSB may have simply opened another ‘pest case’ in this story, as it was in Stalin's time, under false accusations. But it is also worth continuing to monitor the development of this situation, because it may turn out that Ukraine has received such an unexpected reinforcement in aircraft to repel Russian aggression.