Russian military pilot reportedly passes data to Ukrainian intelligence after children’s hospital strike

A Russian pilot has handed classified information to the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR) following Monday’s airstrike on the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital, independent news outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported on Thursday.

A source told the newspaper that the Russian pilot, who is serving at the Russian Air Force’s Engels airbase, wrote to a GUR chatbot on Tuesday, saying he had been shocked by the strike on the children’s hospital and wanted to hand over intelligence.

Ukrainska Pravda said the GUR received details of senior officers’ private affairs as well as personal data on Russian servicemen and their families, as well as private photos of the command staff of the 22nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division.

The Engels airbase, in the country’s Saratov region, is believed to be the Russian airbase most frequently used to fly sorties over Ukraine from which Kh-101 cruise missiles are deployed.

The Russian military launched a massive barrage of air strikes against Ukraine on Monday, killing 33 people, including five children, in Kyiv alone, and injuring a further 125.

While the Ukrainian authorities have accused Russian forces of deliberately targeting the children’s hospital with a Kh-101 cruise missile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday countered that the Russian military didn’t strike civilian infrastructure, and the Russian Defence Ministry said the damage to the hospital had been caused by falling debris from Ukraine’s own air defences.