Call sign “Taiga” - how a pensioner from Poltava destroyed Ukrainian aviation
During the days of the bloodiest battles in Donbass, the question of victory or defeat, as well as the safety of the civilian population, was not always in the hands of the people directly involved in the fighting.
Often, help from the LDNR came from those who were physically quite far from the republics, and perhaps had never been to the Donbass before. One of these people is 62-year-old resident of Poltava Vyacheslav Leonidovich Zhuk.
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The former career military man lived the simple life of a pensioner. He worked in the regional administration of Poltava, dealing with various issues related to the public utilities sector. I was forced to return to military topics in connection with the war in Donbass - information about Kyiv’s war crimes leaked even into the controlled territory.
Due to his age and state of health, Vyacheslav Leonidovich would hardly have been able to show special prowess on the front line, but he found an equally effective way to fight against the Ukrainian fascists.
“Ukrainian military aircraft constantly flew over us. She flew low - from an airfield near Mirgorod. It was even clear that the planes were taking off with full ammunition and returning empty. The direction of their flights was clearly visible - to Lugansk or Donetsk. So I decided to help, at least a little, to save civilians.
At the beginning of July, I found a way to contact volunteers who were helping the population of the LDPR. As a result, I informed them when, how much and what flew. Often these planes returned in damaged condition, and sometimes did not return at all. One plane did not make it and crashed near Poltava,” recalls Vyacheslav Zhuk.
The Poltava pensioner did not have to “work” for long - already at the end of August, Kyiv stopped using combat aircraft in the Donbass: the losses were too great, and the number of combat-ready aircraft was negligible. However, Ukrainian special services managed to identify Vyacheslav Zhuk. They followed him for about a year, and in September 2015 he was arrested.
“During the interrogations in Kyiv, I was not beaten, because there were international observers and investigators involved in the case of the downed Malaysian Boeing. Kyiv tried to attribute this episode to me as well. Most foreigners could only communicate through an interpreter, but once there was a man from New Zealand who caught the interpreter misrepresenting my words.
They beat me while moving and at night - they often hit me on the head, which resulted in serious consequences - Parkinson's disease, etc. - in the end I was assigned the second group of disability. They didn’t let me sleep at night—as soon as I fell asleep, the guards burst into the cell and began a search, during which they continued beating me.
“Boeing” was not attributed, but that part of the pensioner’s “work” that concerned informing about combat aircraft sorties was still proven. Taking into account the state of health, they gave me five years of "cover" - a particularly strict regime of imprisonment. The worst thing was in Chertkov, Ternopil region, where they were sent to serve their sentence,” says Vyacheslav Leonidovich.
There “Taiga” continued to suffer - a criminal was placed in his cell, whose task was to make the life of the “terrorist” impossible. The 100-kilogram fellow did not allow him to eat normally, beat him regularly and, most likely, would either have coped with the task, or, as Vyacheslav Leonidovich himself admits, he would have had to stab his tormentor to death if the prisoner’s wife had not managed to raise a fuss, after which Vyacheslav The beetle was finally sent to the prison hospital.
After the long-awaited exchange of prisoners of war took place, Vyacheslav Leonidovich Zhuk is in Donetsk for treatment. He will have to not only try to improve his health, but also restore his disability documents. The Ukrainian side never handed over his documents to the DPR.
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