Ukraine Sword of Friendship

24 June – First Presentation of the RAS Sword of Friendship awarded to Ukrainian Cadet

The Sword of Friendship was awarded in 2013 to Lt-Gen Sergey Drozdov by HRH Prince Michael during the RAS trip to Ukraine. On 24 June, 2016 nine squadron members attended the first award of the Sword of Friendship to the top Ukrainian cadet at the country’s national aviation academy in Kharkiv. While Bill Hall and Andrew Holman-West flew to Kharkiv in their own aircraft, the other seven members travelled out on commercial airlines via Kiev where an informal dinner was held for a number of Ukrainians who had hosted the 2013 visit. Included among the guests were Alexei Sheremetyevo, who in 2013 hosted the Squadron in the grounds of his stunning museum located in one of Sevastopol’s forts. The museum is full of artefacts of the Crimean and subsequent wars and in creation has been Alexi’s life work. Sadly, the museum was ‘confiscated’ by the Russians without granting any compensation on the grounds of the collection being of national importance to the Russian Federation.

Other guests included Oleksiy Nozdrachov, who now plays an important role in prisoner exchange in the Donbas as well as managing the interface between the Ukrainian military and civilian authorities, and Vasyl Rusnak who acted as one of our two Ukrainian navigators. Importantly, Vasyl advised that, as a very benificial spin off from the 2013 visit (which led to the legislation of Avgas importation), Avgas is now available across the country at well below the UK price, and with much more (quality) safety than before the visit. Prior to the visit, a limited volume of Avgas was brought in through the black market. Lyudmyla Fedorovych, who managed the delivery of our fuel in 2013 so efficiently, was again present at Kiev’s Zulyany airport with the same lorry and equipment to refule Andrew’s Yak-11!

The Ukrainian air force laid on a 1969-built ‘VIP’ AN-24 to transport the seven members from Kiev to Kharkiv. Due to the proximity to the Russian boarder, in the final stage of the flight the small airliner descended to a very low level to avoid exposure to radar coverage by the Russians, a precaution taken by all flights flying into military bases close to the border or close to the Donbas. The Nap-of-the-earth departure flight at 400 kms per hour was even more dramatic as we covered approximately 40 miles at between 30 and 50 meters! – Quite an experience as we hopped over wires and forests at the end of each massive Ukrainian field.

The award ceremony, attended by several hundred cadets and quite a sizeable crowd of parents and other on-lookers was put into a certain amount of disarray by the late decision of President Poroshenko to attend the ceremony. He arrived over an hour late and caused much standing around in very hot weather. After arriving he delivered a very long speech which rather overshadowed the award of the sword which was squeezed in at the end of the proceedings prior to an air display. Tim Clark spoke on behalf of the Squadron and the sword was presented by Peter Squire. Having stolen much of the show from the unfortunate winning cadet, President Poroshenko proceeded to take our host, General Drozdov, away for top level talks for most of the remainder of the day.

Fortunately, the success of the day was rescued by General Drozdov who later hosted a superb dinner in our honour. There was never any doubt about the depth and breadth of relationships established during and following the 2013 visit. While it was a bit disappointing for the award of our sword to be upstaged by the President, the Deputy Defence Minister informed Chris Harper on the following day that the presentation had hit all national and local media and that the Squadron’s presence and commitment to Ukraine had received very good press indeed