A Ukrainian Mi-24 attack helicopter flies during military drills in Dnipropetrovsk region, on June 7, 2023.Viacheslav Ratynskyi\/Reuters <\/p>\n
A Ukrainian air force crew told The Sunday Times that women flash them when they fly overhead. <\/p>\n
One woman even proposed marriage by holding up a sign as they flew over a town, a pilot said. <\/p>\n
The Ukrainian air force is trying to keep morale high as it faces a strong Russian counterpart. <\/p>\n
A Ukrainian helicopter crew told The Sunday Times that women in the country flash them as they fly overhead to boost their morale in fighting Russia. <\/p>\n
In a recent feature, the show of support was described by a Ukrainian pilot, identified only by his rank of major and his first name Maksym. <\/p>\n
He said his crew saves the GPS locations of places where it happens, lighthearted moment in their dangerous and often demoralizing missions against a far superior Russian air force. <\/p>\n
One woman even proposed marriage to them by holding up a sign, he said. <\/p>\n
Maksym and his fellow airmen have been flying a Soviet-designed Mil Mi-8 helicopter on daily missions to Bakhmut, an eastern city in Ukraine, which has become a flashpoint in the war. <\/p>\n
On their way to their missions they try to keep conversation light and positive, Maksym said, and like to interact with civilians on the ground. They recently threw a bottle of cognac wrapped in a towel to an elderly man they spotted in the war-torn landscape, he said. <\/p>\n
These kind of interactions as more viable because the helicopters fly very low to avoid Russian air-defense, often just 15 feet above ground, the Times report said. <\/p>\n
The Ukrainian air force is struggling against a far better-armed Russia, Maksym said. The disparity is especially strong between the air forces, which Maksym characterized by saying: \"The Russians understand we can do nothing to them in the air.\" <\/p>\n
Ukraine has limited ammunition and no aircraft that counters Russia's newest models in the sky, he said. Half of his unit has already been killed, he added. <\/p>\n
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told The Wall Street Journal last month that Russian air superiority would exact a heavy toll on Ukrainian soldiers if Western powers did not provide them with reinforcements. <\/p>\n
Read the original article on Business Insider <\/p>\n
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Ukrainian helicopter crew say women flash them as they fly overhead to boost their morale fighting Russia - Yahoo News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Ukrainian Mi-24 attack helicopter flies during military drills in Dnipropetrovsk region, on June 7, 2023.Viacheslav Ratynskyi\/Reuters A Ukrainian air force crew told The Sunday Times that women flash them when they fly overhead. One woman even proposed marriage by holding up a sign as they flew over a town, a pilot said. Continue reading