Can you imagine the recruitment at the retirement home?
They targeting the 50+y olds that want to get away from their wives and see some action again. I imagine there is a bunch of those around that could be brought up to speed in no time. Everything is meant to avoid draft if they can.
Ukrainians reported they shot down a Kanamat Botashev 63y old, a retired Major General of the Russian Air Force. Take it with a grain of salt as some outrageous claims are made and spread without any corroborating sources to back them up
''“Kanamat died today! Popasnaya district, 8:25… The first approach of the NAR-s (unguided aircraft missiles), the second – bombs … Stinger at the exit from the attack, an explosion in the air and … That’s it,”
By all accounts he was flying for WAGNER PMC after being kicked out of the military. SU25s were being phased out before the Ukraine war now they are the no1 CAS tool i imagine bunch of planes and pilots were reactivated.
Sounds like he was a loose canon.
On June 28, 2012, Kanamat Botashev crashed a Su-27 fighter.
Botashev commanded a regiment of the Guards Air Base in Voronezh. His military career came to an end in June 2012, when he was accused of crashing a Su-27 fighter near Petrozavodsk.
The general asked his friend a colonel to let him fly a Su-27, he had no training on Su-27
Botashev decided to perform aerobatics during the flight but lost control of the plane. The fighter crashed, and the pilots ejected.
Then it turned out there was already a similar official violation on Botashev’s record - in 2011 he flew a Su-34 without permission.
Botashev was found responsible for the plane crash and sentenced to 4 years probation and a fine of 5 million rubles [about 84,550 US dollars].
Popasna and Lyman its where some of the heaviest fighting was going on , VKS is flying 240 CAS sorties per day over that area