In August 2023, Ukrainian scouts, under the leadership of the Hero of Ukraine, Colonel Oleg Babii, walked over 600 km in the deep rear of Russia to destroy TU-22M3 bombers at the Soltsy airfield in Russia's Novgorod region.
Operation Russia's Tu-22 destruction
The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) reports that a scout group under Babii's leadership received a crucial task to stop numerous airstrikes on peaceful cities in Ukraine. They completed the task.
Returning to the territory under the control of Ukraine, the reconnaissance group of Colonel Oleg Babii was ambushed and engaged in an unequal battle with the Russian invaders.
In this battle, on August 30, 2023, while covering the departure of his brothers-in-arms, Ukrainian scout Lt. Col. Oleg Babii was mortally wounded and died.
The DIU said that Oleg Babii had nine successful reconnaissance forays into the enemy's rear and twelve special measures to organise and ensure the movement of Ukraine's resistance to the temporarily occupied territories (TOT) and behind the enemy's rear.
He also discovered up to 70 critical strategic objects of the enemy, such as command posts, military equipment, engineering and fortification equipment, etc.
This information was used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to plan operations to release TOT and inflict fire damage on important enemy targets.
Thanks to the successful performance of the tasks by Colonel Babii's group, it was possible to disorganise the occupiers' logistics and destroy their essential objects and elements of critical infrastructure.
Oleg Babii is a Hero of Ukraine
From the first days of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, Oleg Babii organised and carried out special operations in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and on Russia's territory, which changed the course of the war.
Oleg Babii was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine with the Golden Star Order for his feat.
He had a family of a wife and two small children. The youngest daughter was only one year old at the time of her father's death.
On January 22, a commemorative plaque was installed on the school's facade where he studied in Lviv.
