In August, a helicopter pilot successfully defected from the Russian army, directly over the border to Ukraine. He has recently shared the details of his harrowing escape, chronicled in a C.N.N. article. After secretly contacting intelligence officers in Ukraine, the pilot was able to find a way for himself and his whole family to leave Russia, undetected. When flying close to the border, he simply turned to fly directly over it, while remaining at a low enough altitude to avoid notifying the army. There were two other soldiers with him, but they were “eliminated” after the plane landed, as fighters for the enemy.
Upon contacting Ukrainian officials, the pilot (whom Ukrainian officials identified as Maxim Kuzminov, although this has not been confirmed with Russian sources) said he was promised “safety…new documents” and financial compensation in exchange for his defection. Interestingly, in the face of what sounded like a meticulously planned operation, Kuzminov nonchalantly said “Let’s try it” as he neared the border. This shows how he must have grappled with the idea in the time leading up to the day of defection. It must be difficult to leave one’s home country for good.
A situation like this is not uncommon in times of war. There are always double agents and defections in the field of espionage, and morally, the actions can be complicated. On the one hand, many people believe, rightly, that the Ukrainians are struggling for personal freedom against a much larger and controlling invader – a noble cause. These people would applaud a Russian defection. But, as shown by the two Russian soldiers who were killed right as they left the aircraft, it’s never that simple, especially on smaller scales. Is world peace just about ending wars? What if people are killed, even in the pursuit of overall world peace? These are some of the questions we struggle with when analyzing modern conflicts.
In the days of the Soviet Union, Ukraine remained a particularly large province of “greater Russia” (more specifically, a province of a large nation controlled by Russia). Even then, there was excessive conflict, as anti-revolutionary fears led Stalin to neglect his own people and in fact kill them in large numbers. These policies led to the Holodomor, an infamous famine which killed millions of Ukrainians. When Ukraine gained independence in 1991, the eastern side spoke primarily Russian, while a more Ukrainian-speaking area characterized the west. Russian concerns that Ukraine could fall under the Western sphere of influence led Russia to invade in 2014 (using the Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine as a pretext), annexing the Crimea region, and “aiding separatist forces in the Donbas Region,” according to the Council on Foreign Relations. That conflict continued until it escalated into Russia’s full-blown invasion of 2022, which Ukraine continues to battle.
Clearly, as is often the case, this is a complicated war. As shown by the lives taken as a price for Kuzminov’s escape, war is harsh. Some may argue that Russia had reason to fear Western encroachment in its former domain, given how much N.A.T.O. expanded after the Cold War. But examining past Russian aggressions shows that it was clearly the instigator for the current war, making an effort to retake old land. This war of choice has gone worse for Russia than that nation expected, perhaps in part because average Russians cannot see a reason for the atrocities against Ukrainian civilians being committed in their name – which may also be a reason why the pilot defected. A mini-story like this one illustrates a much larger conflict, where innocents die in vain every day.
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