Heroic Ukrainian pilot's cockpit cam shows daring below-radar flight

this is the cockpit view as Ukrainian fighter pilot vading Borussia fires missiles from his Mig fighter jet aviators like him he's 29 take extraordinary risks battling the Russians in Jets older than himself how many combat missions have you been on since the start of the invasion I have 77 combat Mission 77 combat missions yep one of those missions made him a Ukrainian hero for usherloff who goes by the call sign karya in October took to the skies after radar detected near the Central City of V

enezia incoming Shahid suicide drones like this one [Applause] karya's orders Search and Destroy you have to see them to destroy them our onboard radar system does not allow us to effectively destroy them we need visual contact with them but destroy them he did five confirmed kills but at such close range debris from the fifth drone smashed into both his engines the plane began to destruct a fire broke out in the cabin my ability to control the plane was lost he aimed his crashing dig at an open

field away from a village and then ejected at the last possible moment recording this video as he parachuted there was plenty of time because I was flying from a height of about four thousand feet I took this photo to check my health because I was bleeding and secondly to reassure my comrades who are worried about me whether I was alive [Applause] Ukraine's president named him a hero of Ukraine now as this country battles for the contested legendary city of bakmut and prepares for a counter-off

ensive Pilots like karia take off on even more high-risk missions sorties flown just 65 feet above the surface to duck enemy radar Karai shared with Scripps news rarely seen footage that he recorded in his cockpit right now in Bachman are you able to offer any kind of air cover to your troops on the grounds there we do go there like the enemy we understand very well that entering the air defense Zone means there's a high chance of being destroyed we presume we do work in the zone covered by the

anti-aircraft defenses at extremely low altitudes flying at the lowest safe height above the train were able to get close to the front line we not only risk their air defenses and aircraft firing at us but also the banal risk of running into ground obstacles such as power transmission lines but our pilot cuts are all experienced I know how to do this job karius says Russian Pilots with their more advanced technology can attack from further away and take fewer risks he says a Russian Pilot Flying

an su-37 spots him on radar from more than 125 miles away whereas his Mig can detect its foe from around 45 miles some Russian Rockets can hit targets from those 125 miles though the ones they typically Fire have a range of around 50 miles Ukraine's Rockets but even um I won't divulge the specific figure but it's almost halfback so flying low the danger high is the only option you must get nervous when you're taking off to go on one of those missions of course during the preparation for the mis

sion but this nervousness is controlled it does not turn to panic from the moment you press the button to start the play it all disappears because the task is ahead and you need to be completely focused on it Ukrainian Air Force officials try to focus Guess The public's attention on their highest health getting the U.S to provide them with f-16s currently it's impossible to resolve the problem of the war with MiG-29 aircraft wait wait hold on one second so you're saying you can't win the war wit

hout the f-16s we cannot win a war without their superiority we need to establish priority in the sky that is we need to have the means to repel Russian aircraft the need to repel them becoming more urgent Ukraine's Air Force spokesman says due to a newly emerging capability Russian warplanes releasing bombs that don't simply drop they fly today they're using guided aerial bombs against us this is a bomb that flies 70 or more kilometers that's around 45 miles the edge of the migs radar range an

f-16s radar can spot enemy planes 184 miles away with that in mind Ukraine's Air Force rotates Pilots out of the sky for of all things English lessons why right now in the middle of the war are you studying English we are waiting for Western Fighters we have great hope in our Western partners that we will receive them after all this is exactly what will help us speed up the victory what's more difficult learning English or learning to fly a fighter jet in my mid-29 I feel that's my place now whe

n I sit on the English lessons I don't control all situations the gulf between an F-16 and a MiG-29 is like that between a new Ferrari and an old Ford Escort the MiG-29 is a fairly old Soviet machine where everything is completely Analog Devices and a huge number of toggle switches in the F-16 cabin everything is optimized and as we say everything is made for people will you need to leave the country to learn how to fly them if you were to get the Western fighter jets it is necessary for trainin

g on these Fighters and that is why we selected a certain number of pilots who work in parallel learn the language and parallel and can be sent for retraining would you do you have a simulator that you can train on yes of course we have mobile simulators VR glasses and everyone tries to spend as much time as possible with these simulators U.S officials say they have no plans to provide Ukraine with f-16s so for now all Ukrainian Pilots can do is make two have you ever been on a mission where one

of the planes didn't come back yes I have been treated me it was last April we were in the Asian area where the enemy was accumulating large strike groups during one of the missions our su-24 Bulma aircraft did not return from the mission he was shot down the same with su-25 planes and helicopters what's it like when you've landed and you're getting out of your MiG-29 knowing that you've lost one of your comrades no it's uh of course we all felt despair when we were on the ground you see we hav

e enough defense skills and competencies but the technical obsolescence of our craft does not allow us to fully protect our colleagues from other types of Aviation if you had an F-16 you think you could have protected that bomber yes and very effectively after surviving when his plane didn't back in October karya called his wife from the hospital what did she say yeah I made a video call the face was bandaged I said everything is fine everything is all right she cried and that was it after that

your wife didn't say no more fighter jets for you yeah she fully and completely supports me but she told me please take care of yourself I said of course I won't protect myself but she fully understands that there is a war in our country and we need to work I live enough we've been preparing for this all our lives in order to protect our country and now is the time to do it Jason joins us tonight from Keith Jason you talked about this emerging threat from Russia guided aerial bombs what do we kn

ow about those bombs and also what Ukraine's Air Force can do about them well chance the Weaponry continues to evolve now Russia's not been able to use its bombers and to drop bombs from the sky because of Ukraine's air defenses well that's changing the Russians have figured out a way to get bombs that would normally just fall downward to go on an angle to be guided towards targets that are about 45 miles away and as a result they're out of the range of the Ukrainian fighter jets and this presen

ts a real threat because you know the Russians have plenty of bombs they haven't gone into their stores of bombs if by some accounts have gone through a lot of their cruise missiles maybe running low on those and what I'm also being told is that these types of bombs they're really difficult to shoot out of the sky what they really need to do is to shoot the planes out of the sky the bombers out of the sky and they lack the capabilities to do that currently if they were to get f-16s that could he

lp perhaps they'll be helped by getting these Patriot missiles in the first Patriot missile battery has live tier but that's not going to cover the entire Sky they're not telling us of course where they're going to put that battery um but that's a new challenge for the ukrainians if these begin to be used by the Russians in large numbers yeah it sounds like so many threads too think about and contend with but in the meantime we keep hearing about this spring offensive it's springtime now is this

coming well the predictions are and what you heard people from the Ukrainian government saying is that it could happen at the end of this month so really just in the next couple of weeks but it may also take longer for them to prepare for this this is really going to be a big deal when it's launched and I think it really is a matter of when not if and they're waiting on more Western weapons to come they need to refill their stocks of shells of rockets all those things and to get more tanks so w

ill they hold out until they get more of those or will they go for it we just don't know but everyone is standing by to see what happens because this could really determine the future course of this war and perhaps even the outcome of this war Chance The Quiet build-up continues the timing has yet unknown Jason Bellini reporting tonight from the heart of Keith thank you