Russian pilot Lieutenant Dmytro Mishov of the Russian Air Force crossed the border of Lithuania illegally in order not to participate in the war in Ukraine.
This is reported by LRT.
In an interview with the Russian BBC, Mishov said that on May 28, he fled to one of the Baltic countries and on the day of the publication of the interview, he contacted the Lithuanian migration officials.
According to the pilot, he was the assistant commander of the helicopter crew, and later became the pilot-operator of the combat helicopter.
The Russian claimed that he did not want to participate in the war against Ukraine.
At the same time, representatives of the Lithuanian authorities said that they still have no information about the Russian pilot, but they are trying to find his tracks.
"Currently, the Lithuanian authorities do not have any information about the specified citizen - neither in the border service that he crossed the border at official checkpoints, nor that he was observed illegally crossing the border, nor that such a citizen did not submit b application for granting asylum to the Migration Department," said Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Arnoldas Abramavičius.
He added that sometimes the person can be hidden, in addition, sometimes the transcription of the surname from Cyrillic to the Lithuanian alphabet can be misleading.
"If he crossed the border illegally, the border of Latvia is the least protected to date, although the possibility that he could have crossed the border of Lithuania and Belarus is not excluded. So far, there is a minimum of information. The services are looking for possible traces of the citizen," said the deputy minister.
According to him, after finding this person, the main verdict will be issued by the Department of State Security.