The military commissar said that the marines deliberately launched a copter near the firing positions of Azov in order to provoke the nationalists to open fire on it.

“The bird caught two bullets, but returned, completed its task,” Filatov said.

According to him, in this way the Russian forces did not come under fire.

On April 18, Filatov showed footage of Mariupol from a copter at the time of the offensive of the Russian Marine Corps and DPR forces on the Azovstal plant.