Former Director of Belarusian Aircraft Factory Owned by Motor Sich Killed on the Front Lines Fighting for Russia

Vladimir Troitsky, the former director of the OJSC Orsha Aircraft Repair Plant, was killed on the front lines in Ukraine while fighting as part of the Russian invasion forces.

The Belarusian newspaper Nasha Niva reported on this.

According to the Ukrainian project “I Want to Live,” Troitsky, who signed a contract with the Russian army on September 1, 2023, tragically lost his life on November 5 of the same year.

In the summer of 2024, the Vitebsk anti-terrorism unit was reportedly searching for the relatives of Volodymyr Troitsky. It is suggested that his body may have remained unburied during this time, according to the publication.

Troitsky served as the director of the Orsha Aircraft Repair Plant, specializing in helicopter repairs, including various versions of the Mi-8, from 2007 to 2015.

In 2018, he was sentenced in Belarus to four years in a high-security prison, with his assets confiscated. The court found that he had abused his position during the construction of an airfield between 2011 and 2013.

Troitsky, however, claimed he had been the victim of a “setup” orchestrated by Vyacheslav Bohuslaev, Ukrainian MP and CEO of Zaporizhzhia’s Motor Sich, the newspaper reported.

During that period, the Ukrainian company purchased 60% of the shares in the Belarusian aircraft repair plant and had plans to invest in the enterprise. However, in 2018, Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus’s self-proclaimed president, announced the nationalization of the plant.

According to the newspaper, as of January 31, 2023, Troitsky was listed as an inmate at the Vitsba branch of the state-owned enterprise VK 12-VAL.

Journalists suggest that he may have served his sentence in correctional colony No. 3, and later, after his release, he secured a job at the plant.

In October 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine arrested Viacheslav Bohuslaev, the president of JSC Motor Sich, and the head of the company’s Department of Foreign Economic Activities, on charges of collaborationism.

Bohuslaev is also suspected of financing the so-called “DPR” (Donetsk People’s Republic), as he continued his cooperation with the Snizhne Machine Building Plant, located in the temporarily occupied territory.