“There is no one to fly and nothing to fly on, everything has been stolen” – ex-chief of staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces aviation squadron
The main reason for the crash of the An-26 transport plane in the Kharkov region is total corruption in the army.
Former military pilot Konstantin Pushchin, who served in the 203rd training aviation brigade, to which the crashed plane belonged, stated this on air on the ZIK television channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Pushchin emphasized that even during the years of his service, until the early 2000s, corruption flourished in the army, and equipment inherited from the Soviet Union was mercilessly cut into scrap metal or transported for sale to Africa.
“There is only one reason: corruption in the army. Because even when I served, even before 2000, and I served in this regiment, I was here as the chief of staff of the aviation detachment, and already serving in the Ukrainian army, one of the reasons for my dismissal was the theft of our budget. At that time, in the early 2000s, it had already begun.
And now, talking with officers who serve, I am simply shocked by the scale of disrespect for our army. We don't have aviation. We have KHAZ, no aviation, we have Antonov, no aviation, we have the Kozhedub School, but there are no pilots, because we don’t teach pilots to fly, we teach them how to fly...
No funding. If there was such funding, there would not be these 43-year-old, 53-year-old planes. Here, a 52-year-old plane stands on the runway, on which our cadets will also fly further. I hope they won’t, I hope we will ensure that they won’t,” Pushchin said.
Let us remind you that on the evening of September 25, an An-26Sh training transport plane crashed near Chuguev, with 27 people on board, 26 of whom died.
English version :: Read in English "There's no one to fly and nothing to fly on, everything's been stolen" – former chief of staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces air squadron