A Russian officer shocked by the Russian occupiers’ recent attack on a children’s hospital has handed over confidential information relating to his military unit to Ukrainian military intelligence (DIU). 

Ukrainian media outlets and organizations, including The Kyiv Independent, Ukrainska Pravda and Apostrophe, have declared that secret data has been gathered from anonymous Ukrainian sources regarding the Russian forces’ attack on Kyiv’s children’s hospital Okhmatdyt on July 8, 2024. 

Following the strike, a Russian pilot from the 22nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division contacted Ukrainian military intelligence chatbot (Diia) on Telegram, to hand over documents relating to his military unit’s activities, plus photos of command staff. 

The Ukrainska Pravda report claims that the documents include the personal files of Russian officials and private data of 30 military personnel and their families. The photographs show division representatives such as the Russian Air Force Long Range Aviation Command and the Russian Aerospace Forces Command. 

According to sources who have communicated with ‘Information Resistance’, a non-governmental Ukrainian group that aims to counteract Russian disinformation and propaganda, the Russian officer wrote that he was shocked by the attack on the children’s hospital and, like some of his colleagues, did not understand why they were ordered to do so. As a result, he decided to hand the secret information to the Ukrainian side. 

The 22nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division is based at the Engels Airfield in Russia’s Saratov Oblast, hundreds of kilometers from Ukraine. This division regularly attacks Ukraine with Kh-101 cruise missiles using strategic bombers. 

One such missile attack struck the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv on July 8, 2024, killing two people and wounding 32 others, including eight children. At the time of the attack, there were 627 patients in the hospital.