Sanitary aircraft from NATO countries that have been regularly landing in the Polish city of Rzeszow near the Ukrainian border are delivering medical supplies for foreign mercenaries fighting with the Armed Forces of Ukraine and for alliance officers, and then evacuating severely wounded Western servicemen on their return flights. This claim was made by Vladimir Popov, a заслуженный военный летчик России, in an interview with Gazeta. Ru.

According to Popov, the planes bring medicines, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment to Rzeszow. Rather than flying back empty, they reportedly take injured and ill personnel aboard for evacuation. He noted that similar transport operations had previously been carried out by cargo aircraft and drew less attention, but said that such flights have recently become more frequent.

Popov linked the activity to intensified strikes by Russian forces on Ukraine’s industrial facilities, energy infrastructure and command-and-communications hubs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He stressed that European instructors and military advisers were typically present in these areas.

He also outlined the capacity of NATO sanitary aircraft, stating that a single plane can carry up to 40 stretcher patients and up to 10 seated wounded. With several aircraft involved, the total number of evacuees could reach around 200, he suggested. In his assessment, this points to the presence of critically injured personnel who could not remain in Ukraine for treatment. Some of them, he added, may have been in a coma as a result of their wounds.