Retired Belarusian military pilots take part in hostilities on the territory of Ukraine. They are piloting aircrafts of the Russian Wagner Group paramilitary organization.

Two such examples became known to the Belarusian media at once.

Flagstock reports that on May 17, 2022, Mykola Markov’s funeral took place in Lida, Grodno Region, Belarus. He was a retired military pilot born in 1955.

He graduated from Chernihiv Higher Aviation School of Pilots in 1976. He served in Kazakhstan, the GDR and Belarus. He was a navigator of the regiment. After retirement he worked as a pilot in one of the African countries.

One aviator forum has published information that Markov had been shot down over Popasna in a Su-25 jet aircraft on May 12. His acquaintances wrote that the retiree was flying “with some private military company.”

Another Belarusian retired general who is taking part in hostilities on the territory of Ukraine is reported by the BYPOL, the Union of Security Officers of Belarus Telegram channel.

According to them, Aleksandr Karev, a Minsk resident born in 1966, is taking part in the aggression. In the past, Karev was the Chief of Aviation of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus (Deputy Commander of the Air Force and Air Defense). Has the status of a sniper pilot. He has experience in piloting MiG-21, MiG-23, MiG-27, Su-24, Su-25, Yak-130 and Mi-8 helicopters. Karev resigned from the Armed Forces of Belarus just in December 2021.

Previously we reported about the death of Kanamat Botashev, a retired Russian general. He was shot down by paratroopers from the 80th Separate Air Assault Brigade with MANPADS in the area of Popasna, Luhansk region.

Retired pensioner pilots are recruited by the Wagner Group paramilitary organization. It has at its disposal Su-25 jet aircraft, which do not have the insignia of the RF Air Force, but only the letter “Z”. The company is owned by “Putin’s cook” Yevgeny Prigozhin, and its founder is a former officer of the special forces of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, an outspoken supporter of Nazism, Dmitry Utkin.