Victory Commanders is a series of interviews with commanders of various levels and branches of the military. We invite to the Ukrinform studio members of the military, who, with their experience and credibility, professional skill and unwavering belief in victory are already writing their names into the modern history of Ukraine.
This interview is with lieutenant colonel Ivan Smerechansky, call sign Smereka, Wing Commander at the 114th Tactical Aviation Brigade.
– When we greet friends, acquaintances, or relatives on holidays, we always wish them peaceful skies, and especially so in recent years. What do you associate with the skies, given that it is your workplace?
– When a was a kid, I used to go to an airport with my father and look at the airplanes, it was then when I developed a dream of becoming a pilot. And now I have been flying for more than 10 years. Before the full-scale invasion, the sky used to look like this to me: clouds, the sun, everything is so beautiful to look at from a bird’s-eye view, it takes your breath away. But now you understand that it is very dangerous.
– Where did you study and serve until 2022?
– I graduated from a university in Kharkiv in 2016. Afterwards, I was assigned to Ivano-Frankivsk to serve with the 114th Tactical Aviation Brigade, where I am currently a Wing Commander. I came there as an ordinary pilot-lieutenant and so I gradually grew up to become a wing commander.
– Are pilots born or are they made? Is it still exhausting work for you?
– Everyone wants to fly, but it is not given to everyone to fly. We had such cases with cadets, where a person, a healthy one, equipped with superior knowledge and training, was still unable to pilot an airplane. That is, yes, it’s true indeed, to some extent, to say, that pilots are born rather than made.
– Your very first flight – do you remember it, what was it like?
– Each first solo flight is memorable, indeed. The first flight is memorable when you take off to the sky, even accompanied by an instructor, but it’s a whole different feeling when you are alone, without an instructor by your side, that is, you yourself pilot a combat plane, or even a non-combat one. When first-and second-year cadets, we were trained on small, light airplanes, but all the same, to experience these emotions, that you are piloting an airplane all by yourself, that is, you are responsible for everything, you take off by yourself, and then have to land the plane safely, all by yourself… We have a tradition that, once you land your plane, your comrades greet you, then they throw you up, beat you against the side of the plane… These days and these moments are imprinted in your memory for the rest of your life.
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– You have already mentioned one tradition, tell us more about mascots and superstitions – we know that there are some among pilots.
– Yes, we are superstitious: you must not shave before the flight or take pictures of yourself. I don’t know, someone says it’s nonsense, but I adhere to these superstitions and act upon them.
– And what about mascots?
— Mascots?
– Do you have a teddy bear?
– Yes, there is a teddy bear, my friends gave it to me back in 2018. How this story with the bear began… Oksanchenko, who, regrettably, is dead now, was abroad as part of an aerobatic group, and they were passing customs control, at an airport in Ivano-Frankivsk, alongside members of our brigade. And I somehow happened to see this bear – Oksanchenko was gifted it when abroad, it was hard to find one in our country at that time. And on my birthday, a package arrives, and there it is. This bear was flying with them, and now it is my mascot teddy bear, I carry it with myself when passing medical examinations, and it accompanies me in all my flights. I even joke that it tells me when I do something wrong while piloting an airplane.
One time I forgot to take it with myself; I felt that something was missing. And since the inception of the full-scale invasion, I take it with myself for every combat sortie.
– The beginning of the all-out invasion and how your attitude towards your work changed… Tell me, please, about the moment when the sky became no longer safe to you?
– The full-scale war caught me in the Kharkiv region; I was just piloting a plane, we were given “readiness clearance” (that’s how we call it), I saw with my own eyes how they started bombing Kharkiv. At first, I thought it was some kind of a dream, that I would wake up now and everything would be fine. But, unfortunately, it didn’t happen like that. When I took off to the sky, it was about 4 o’clock, I don’t even remember exactly, then I saw how everything was burning, how airfields were being bombarded, the civilian population, and I realized that the war had really begun.
– What were those first days like, what tasks were you assigned?
– Kharkiv was bombarded heavily, we redeployed the airplanes to another airfield, out of the reach of the attacks, and from there we were carrying out sorties over the Kherson region. Then they began to advance, and we also flew to Kyiv from that airfield; it is located in such a way that, in principle, we could fly both here and there.
– Russian airplanes were flying in streams, right?
– Yes.
– How did you manage to fend off these attacks?
– First, they were flying in streams, hoping for quick victory. I don’t know what they were told, probably that we don’t have any air defenses left, then they were told that all our airfields are no longer ready for combat, that is, we no longer have aviation, they can do they their work safely. But, as it turned out, we did have got air defenses in place, they were fighting off attacks, lots of them; you know, in the first days, hostile airplanes were shot down in great numbers, and their pilots did not understand what was happening, and that’s how sustainability was ensured for our airplanes. The main factor was that we are motivated, because it is inherent in us at the genetic level, we are just protecting our own. They had no such motivation, they were simply given an order: move this way, that way, you have to shoot, bomb them. And our motivation is that your family is waiting for you at home, so you definitely have to protect them, and you will fight to the end.
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– But, at that time, we had fewer weapons, much fewer than we have now…
– Yes, there were many-fold fewer weapons, we did not have Western weapons, ones which are currently coming from our partners. But, look, I’m saying that there was motivation, our resistance was strong.
– We know that you took part in the liberation of Kherson Oblast and, in particular, were the first to deploy aerial bombs…
– Yes, that’s true.
– Tell me about it.
– The Kherson operation, let’s say it so, it was highly publicized worldwide, there were a lot of planes involved, we deployed AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missiles, to great effect, they did not expect this from us. And again, we did not expect that Western partners would adapt their weapons to Soviet-era aircraft to that extent. And the following operation, where I was using precision gliding bombs, it was the Eastern front, the results showed that the bombs landed exactly where they were supposed to, hitting enemy’s equipment and personnel.
– Tell us about the process proper, as if you are explaining this to a civilian who is far away from that knowledge. How does it happen? You probably have to stay for a certain time within the reach of enemy air defenses…
– That’s true. You are just assigned a task, specifying which area, when and from what altitude to deploy a weapon, release a bomb, and then you think it over, assess the engagement area, assess the risks, plus you have the so-called cover-up. That is, another plane covers you up and takes some strike on itself where appropriate.
At the very moment you release a bomb, even immediately before this maneuver, you are at a stand-in distance where your aircraft is within the detection rage of a hostile radar and air defenses, and at this moment it is very scary, because at any moment you are told from the ground that a missile is about to be launched at you, and you need to maneuver. It’s like you’re about to release a bomb, but at that moment they tell you: no, you’re launched at by a missile, you must turn off the trajectory, move away, or maybe return to the airfield. The operation didn’t go well, you didn’t release that bomb, you come back, then you are refueled and you go to repeat it again, sometimes it happened. And there are operations where right from the first time you arrived at the assigned spot, released a bomb without any troubles and returned to the airfield safely. Then you are shown the aftermath of the impact – and you see that the bomb did hit the assigned target.
– It is very difficult to imagine when you are told that you are currently within the reach of hostile air defenses, that the enemy is aiming at you, how do you respond and do your job?
– When you hear that you are launched at by a missile, at first there is fear, adrenaline, it’s normal phenomenon feeling like that.
– Every time?
– Every time, because you understand that you are launched at, and you know the performances of those missiles or the weapons they can use, they are pretty accurate, maneuverable, and they have something to shoot us down with, unfortunately. And you just have to overcome this adrenaline, this fear, and perform the maneuver with a cool head, so that this missile or any munition flying towards you simply does not reach and hit you. And it sometimes happens like this: you look in the mirror, you think you’ll see it approaching, but you realize that, in reality, it could be a fraction of a second – and that’s it, a missile is about to hit you.
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– But the bear is always with you, isn’t it?
– Yes, it is always with me, it will save you, and you will return to the home airfield safely.
And there is one more thing worth mentioning: when we were working, for example, with weapons of our own, you at least knew the way it goes down, that missile or a bomb, but with Western weapons – it was for the first time. You don’t know how the plane will behave, whether the munition will release, or it might suddenly happen, God forbid, that it might blow up while still under the wing, you know. But now we see that the Western partners do everything in such a way that it works exactly it is supposed to, now it is more clearer, but it was really difficult at the first times.
– This first deployment – how did it subsequently turn the tide on the battlefield?
– Where there is war, there is need for a change in tactics, a change in strategy, they learn from us, we learn from them. They often make changes to their tactics, and we, too, have to change our tactics when and where we get some newer weapons; this tactics is different in the way we deploy these weapons; its a different strategy. And they begin adapting their tactics accordingly to counter us. That’s the reason why, when we deployed [these weapons] for the first time, they didn’t expect it, they were surprised because they do not know what new weapons we have at our disposal and what these weapons are capable of; that’s where the greatest effect is achieved. And then you just start inventing new strategies, so that you effectively hit a target and no missiles are launched at you, so that you return home happily.
– What’s your assessment of Russian pilots from a professional point of view, because many of them studied at military universities in Ukraine, because they were ranked among the best, and now they are de facto fighting against their fellow students.
– Let’s start with the essentials. In 2014, when the war started, I was a cadet, and then managers offered the cadets from Crimea to return to their homes. It came as a surprise to us all, as lots of students returned to Crimea to become military pilots. In the first years of the University, we shared the same barracks, but now they are fighting against us. And the things they are saying, that they didn’t know there were civilian people in places they targeted, believe me, they are telling lies. You know too well when preparing for a sortie what you will target and where, know the location coordinates where your bomb is supposed to land.
– You are currently in command of a fighter wing. What was your path from an ordinary pilot to commander? When exactly did you take the command?
– Before the full-fledge invasion, I was second in command of a wing after the Wing Commander. When the all-out invasion began, lots of our comrades have already been lost. And the higher commanders selected me as a potential Wing Commander. It’s been a year now since I’ve been in command of the wing.
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– What was your reaction to this promotion? What challenges did you face as a commander?
– First and foremost, it’s responsibility, because you are looked up to by newcomer pilots. Each commander must be present on the battlefield among his men, I am fully aware of this, so as not to let anyone down, so that nobody can say that you avoid fighting, or something similar.
One saying has it that there are no ranks or positions in the skies, we are all equal there. And I am saying, all along, that an incoming missile does not care who is sitting in the cockpit, how many combat sorties he has flown, or what his rank is – we are all equal. Regarding my role as a commander, what’s more of importance is that, once you are appointed a senior, there is such a concept, a senior at some operational airfield from where combat sorties are flown. And a senior, let’s say so, of a group decides who will perform this or that combat sortie. That’s to say, an important and appropriate decision must be made as to who will fly a specific sortie, who is really ready, and who has already done a combat sortie today, for example, and needs a rest. These are all significant aspects of a commander’s work. Before, you were just told: go get ready, you will fly that sortie. But now you have to make decisions, because once a commander, it becomes even more crucial to make appropriate decisions.
– What guides you in making decisions?
– I don’t know, perhaps it’s intuition, everything comes with time. It’s just that, as the amount of your flying experience grows, the number of combat sorties you’ve performed grows, you analyze, and you can tell by looking at a person whether he is ready or not, or whether it is better to let him rest, assign someone else to do this or that sortie today, and someone other tomorrow.
– How many combat sorties have you flown?
– Over two hundred as of now.
– Does that mean to say there can be more than one sortie flown in a day?
– Yes, a lot of factors are involved here. In summer time, for example, good weather means more sorties flown. In the fall or winter time, as you know, where there is fog, rain, and the weather is bad, we can’t fly because the weather is bad in one area or another, and it’s dangerous, you just can’t see the ground, so the intensity of work decreases. And in summer time, when there is a lot of work to be done, one mission is usually flown per day, there can be two missions flown, but where there are three, I can say it from my experience, it is very tough. You can well endure two missions per day, but where there are three or even four, you are already mentally exhausted, because every mission flown is associated with both physical and moral strain, it’s really tough.
– Regarding workloads… It appears clear that not everyone can fly even one mission, but how does it affect you specifically, how do you cope with it?
– In the first days (of the full-scale invasion, – ed.) there was no talk of it at all, there could be four, five, six missions flown per day. We well understood that this is a real-world invasion, a real-world attack on us, and we need to defend ourselves. You don’t think about sleep or food, you understand that you have to fight. Now that the situation has become stable, more or less, let’s say so, you can endure two sorties. Where necessary, of course, we never refuse. We are always asked: are you ready to fly again? I always ask my subordinates if they are ready to fly one more mission, especially where our comrades on the ground are asking for a mission over such and such an area, because it is hot out there. And we understand that we need to help, because without our involvement they cannot break through or sleep peacefully at night. Then we make a decision and fly the third or fourth mission. All you need after that is to have a good rest.
– Do you keep a count of the targets that you have hit?
– I used to, but now, honestly, I no longer keep a count. Lots of the targets have been downed, both verified and non-verified. We, being fighter pilots, are supposed to shoot down air targets (Shahed strike drones, missiles), but now we also do bomb drops, which fighter pilots are not supposed to do. But, you know, the war changes course of things for everyone; I could never have thought that I, a fighter jet pilot, would end up dropping aerial bombs, but life is like that. Where there is talk about ground targets, each mission flown, each bomb that hits, is also a target. I used to shoot down Shahed drones, and these hits have all been verified.
– Each mission assigned to you makes you puzzled as to how it is going to end up. Can you calculate all the contingencies in advance?
– Well, you can’t calculate all the contingencies up to the smallest detail. What you can do is just think over in advance how you will act in this or that situation, but there are lots of different factors involved there. For example, you are told: such and such an area is trouble free, nothing is expected to happen out there, but out here – you are being launched at, you are just preparing, setting yourself up for the worst. The most important thing is the mood before this flight.
– Tell us about your airplane, if you have one. Do you have to fly on different airplanes?
– At first, I had one, and now we have to change between airplanes all the time, and this is a common phenomenon.
– Did it have a name? We talked about mascots, superstitions, is there a thing like that?
– You just come up to a plane, stroke it, and say: “Don’t let me down!” And then, when you are already landed after a mission, you just thank it, “Well done, guy!”, and that’s it.
– What about the number of pilots? Are there enough of them? After all, if we are talking about recruiting, forced conscription, it is all clear there. But with pilots, they need to be trained, what is the situation like in that respect?
– It is much easier to train a tank driver, or a machine gunner, or an artilleryman than to learn how to fly a plane. Because this really involves a lot of work, a large amount of time, which, unfortunately, we don’t have, because the war is going on, and the enemy is going on the offensive, and so we need more personnel.
– What about the adaptation and integration of Western weapons into Ukraine’s army, into its military infrastructure? What’s your assessment of this process?
– I can say it only from my personal point of view: what we are seeing now, like I said before, how they adapt their donated weapons to our planes. And we see that the bombs hit their assigned targets, that they reach their targets, well done. That is, they are working hard, and we can see the result.
– Do you have in stock any curious or interesting story to share with friends and family? One that is worth recalling some day?
– There is one, of course… When the younger generation comes, for example, we say: all right, you are now the youngest lieutenant. We had a tradition, you know, to hand over sneakers, I don’t know why. We, when newcomers, were handed over sneakers. We did not know why sneakers. Because a guy is young, he has to run constantly: sometimes to the store, sometimes for additional portions, sometimes to take something somewhere. That’s why they give you sneakers, even if they don’t fit you. But this is such a tradition in our ranks: sneakers are handed over to each young lieutenant who comes. They are handed over from generation to generation. That is, today he is a lieutenant, in a year or two he will hand over the sneakers to a younger generation.
– How old are the sneakers?
– I don’t know, really. For example, those that were handed to me back in 2016, they said they came from 2007 or 2008. Now I don’t know if these are still those same sneakers, or maybe others. There is another thing: when you make your first solo flight, you put your call sign out of cigarettes. Well, your comrades, when you on a mission in the air, they put your call sign on a table, and everyone wishing to go for a smoke. They are worried because you are in the air, that you will be okay, that you will land safely. And after you have already landed, you, like I said, are thrown up, congratulated. You go to see your instructor, give everyone a pack of cigarettes, to those who let you fly, and have a smoke yourself. But I don’t smoke, so it’s very difficult. But traditions are traditions, they need to be followed.
– We’ve already mentioned your father, and we know that he, a retiree, has got back to service. Tell us about it. As far as I understand, he did so to be closer to you, and for you. How supportive is it? Or may be not?
– From the first days he realized that it all started, my father said: I can’t sit at home anymore – he is an aviation technician, makes pre-flight preparations. Actually, we rarely had to come across at operational airfields during combat work, but really, when you know that your father farewells you to this or that combat mission, it makes you a little bit calmer, on the one hand. But, in truth, you well know that he is even more worried, because he is seeing you off hoping that you will come back alive and safe, will land safely and come out of the cockpit. That’s where such a twofold feeling comes from: you want your parents to be less nervous, to know less, because there is no need, they have already come through so much in their lives. And when he sends me off on a combat mission, I understand: it is even more difficult for him, so we try to cross paths less frequently at an operational airfield.
– You have a family, wife and daughter. How much support do you feel from them, how do they support you?
– Actually, I feel this support very much, and especially so when I am on a rotation at the operational airfield. We have a tradition: I always call my wife before and after each mission, so that she hears my voice before it, as she says, because it is harder to hear it after, she waits for me to call, to say that I am already on the ground, that everything is OK with me. Today in the 21st century, you can use your phone’s camera to watch how your daughter grows up, how she is doing, asking when I will be back, and you understand why and for whom we are fighting.
– How do you see the future of the Ukrainian aviation? Can UAVs eventually replace piloted aircraft?
– In fact, unfortunately, we are still very far away from the time where UAVs will be flying without pilots, as is the case in other countries of the world…, we see that the UAV technology development has not yet reached this point. The future of the Ukrainian aviation… I see that we need as much new Western equipment as possible, need more pilots so that we have a great dominance in the air – that’s for sure, that’s the only thing we need now.
– Little by little, our interview is coming to a close, and I would like you to answer a few blitz questions. I ask you to answer briefly and quickly. Ready?
– Yes.
– Inexperienced drivers tend to mistake the pedals. What about inexperienced pilots?
– You can forget to turn on some switch, for example, that happens sometimes.
– The pilot’s greatest fear?
– Catapult.
– Do you have a dream plane you’d love to fly on one day?
– F-35.
– Your Wing, in three words…
– Humor, comrades-in-arms, a big family.
– What will you never be able to forget?
– My comrades’ deaths.
– What’s something you can’t forgive?
– War.
– The best advice you received in your life?
– Never give up and be confident in yourself.
– Where is your most favorable place in Ukraine?
– Home and my family.
– The first thing you will do after the war ends?
– My first dream is to come and see the graves of all of my fallen comrades.
– What is victory like for you? What will Ukraine’s victory mean for you?
– Victory is when the neighbor, who is not a true neighbor of ours, simply disappears from the map of the world.
Interviewed by Diana Slavinska
Full video of the interview is available on Ukrinform TV channel
Source: Ivan Smerechansky, 114th Tactical Aviation Brigade Wing Commander
