Ukraine 2018
In April 2018, 4Aviation was able to join a group of international journalists to visit several facilities of the Ukrainian armed forces and government agencies. The representatives of 4Aviation regularly attend press days and press tours to report on the units for future publications. Obtaining access to these facilities, with the intention to write some articles, is always a time consuming and final permission is only given at the last minute.
With all the photographers arriving on Sunday 22 April, it was decided to visit the extensive State Aviation Museum in Kiev. With nearly 70 aircraft on display and beautiful weather, this museum turned out to be a great decision! At the end of the day the group gathered at the rendez-vous hotel near Kiev.
A combination of weather and (lack of) flying activities made us decide to go to Poltava today. This large base is home to the Long Range Aviation museum. Highlights in the museum are obviously the Tu-160, Tu-22M3 and Tu-16 but the other aircraft on display are very interesting too. The museum guides gave us an extensive tour that included visits to the cockpits of the long-range bombers and visit to the history rooms of the museum. At the end of the day we drove back to Kiev to wait for the latest information on weather and flying activities.
As the weather did not improve on Tuesday 24 April, it was decided to visit some preserved aircraft around Kiev and we were welcomed at the Aviation University in Kiev. The latter has a large collection of aircraft used as instructional air frames. The big hangar in the city center is quite impressive, as is the collection.
Our final operational day in the Ukraine, Thursday 26 April 2018, started out at Nezhyn, home of the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergency Situations has its flying component here, operating the An-26, An-30, An-32P, Mi-8, Mi-9 and EC145. Access here was very welcoming and we were able to photograph most aircraft in the inventory. The An-30 did a test run, providing some operational photo opportunities.
In the afternoon we were welcomed at Borispol, the transport hub of the Ukrainian Air Force. With a large collection of transport aircraft, we got a good grasp of the transport capabilities of the Air Force. One of the highlights was an Mi-8 in the new pixelated scheme. By finishing the visit at this base, we also finished our visit to the Ukraine. Luckily, new opportunities to visit this nice country were already on the horizon.
