Remember the Russian pilot who defected in 2023? This is his story

In August 2023, The Economist reported that nearly one million citizens of the Russian Federation have fled the country in the wake of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. However, it isn't very often that the stories of those who left their homeland behind are told.

Some Russians left in the immediate aftermath of Moscow's mobilization in September 2022 because they couldn't bear to take part in the special military option against Ukraine. That's the very story of one Russian man who defected from his country to Lithuania in 2023.

Lieutenant Dmitry Mishov was one of the many Russians who fled the country because he did not agree with the war and didn’t want to take part in it. However, the 26-year-old airman was one of the few who made it out of Russia and went on to explain the story of why he left. 

Mishov sat down with BBC News in June 2023 to talk about why he decided to leave Russia and also revealed some of the glaring problems the Russian Armed Forces were facing at the time after suffering terrible losses throughout the first fifteen months of the war. 

The 26-year-old airman was a helicopter pilot based in the region of Peskov and he tried to leave the military in January 2022 before the war began. But in a stroke of bad luck, Mishov’s paperwork wasn’t completed before February 24th and he was forced to stay enlisted. 

Originally, Mishov was sent to Belarus where he flew missions delivering cargo, and he claimed that he had never fought in Ukraine—though BBC News noted that this part of his story could not be confirmed. 

In April 2022 he returned to Russia and tried to finish his decommission but the process took too much time, and when Putin announced Russia’s partial mobilization, Mishov was told he wouldn’t be allowed to leave the military—that’s when he first thought about fleeing. 

"I am a military officer, my duty is to protect my country from aggression, I don't have to become an accomplice in a crime,” Mishov explained to BBC News, “No one explained to us why this war started, why we had to attack Ukrainians and destroy their cities?"

Mishov’s statement matched up well with early reports from the invasion that soldiers had no idea they were involved in an actual conflict. “Frankly speaking, they tricked us,” said a captured Russian officer in a video from March 4th, 2022 according to The Guardian. 

“Everything we were told was a fake. I would tell my guys to leave Ukrainian territory. We’ve got families and children. I think 90% of us would agree to go home.” the officer added, echoing a statement Mishov made when explaining how Russian soldiers felt. 

Mishov told BBC News that nobody in the military believed what they were told when he left because they could see what was happening and they knew the reports issued by the state weren't the truth because they differed greatly from the war’s death and destruction. 

"In the military, no one believes the authorities. They can see what is really happening. They are not some civilians in front of the telly,” the 26-year-old airmen explained, " The military do not believe official reports, because they are simply not true.”

Interestingly, Mishov also told BBC News that it wasn’t the equipment losses that were hurting Russia’s efforts among its military aircrews, it was the staggering loss of pilots, and the few trained professionals available to fly the systems Russia still has left. 

"Now they can replace the helicopters, but there are not enough pilots,” Mishov said, “If we compare this to the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, we know that the Soviet Union lost 333 helicopters there. I believe that we've experienced the same losses in one year."

As of June 20th, 2023, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine claimed its armed forces had destroyed 306 Russian helicopters while the open-source intelligence group Oryx had visually confirmed Russia has lost at least 90 helicopters damaged, captured, or destroyed.

Since June, the number of Russian helicopters claimed to have been destroyed by the Ukrainian General Staff has risen markedly. As of November 20th, the General Staff claimed it destroyed 324 helicopters while Oryx has visual proof of 132 helicopter losses.

In January 2023, Mishov was told he was going to be sent on a mission, and realizing that it probably meant he was going to be sent to Ukraine, the airmen decided he would flee Russia rather than stay and fight in a war that he saw as criminal. 

"I was not refusing to serve in the army as such. I would serve my country if it faced a real threat. I was only refusing to be an accomplice in a crime,” Mishov told BBC News. 

“Had I boarded that helicopter, I would have taken the lives of several dozen people, at the very least. I didn't want to do that. Ukrainians are not our enemy,” the airmen added. 

Mishov did not reveal the route he took to leave Russia but did say it took him through a set of woods where he feared he would be caught by Russian border guards. If he was caught, he knew he would go to prison. 

Luckily, Mishov made it to the European Union, though he is likely now a target of the Russian government after speaking out publicly about fleeing from Russia before he was tasked with carrying out a mission. 

Russia issued an arrest warrant for Mishov in late June 2023 according to the Russian News Agency (TASS), which reported that the lieutenant was "wanted on criminal charges" with no other details provided.