A former U.S. Air Force pilot has made headlines by defecting to Russia and joining its military forces, with a focus on contributing to the conflict in Ukraine. The defector, identified as Wilmer Puello-Mota, reportedly left the U.S. earlier this year amid legal troubles and now serves as a reconnaissance drone operator in the Russian Armed Forces. The move has drawn significant attention due to its implications for international relations and military dynamics. Puello-Mota's defection reflects shifting loyalties and raises concerns about the intersection of personal motives and geopolitical conflicts.
#ExUSAF #RussianForces #WilmerPuelloMota #Defection #DroneOperator #PutinsAgenda #UkraineConflict #MilitaryDefection #InternationalTensions #Geopolitics #USLegalIssues #RussianMilitary #Reconnaissance #ShiftingAlliances #GlobalSecurity
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#ExUSAF #RussianForces #WilmerPuelloMota #Defection #DroneOperator #PutinsAgenda #UkraineConflict #MilitaryDefection #InternationalTensions #Geopolitics #USLegalIssues #RussianMilitary #Reconnaissance #ShiftingAlliances #GlobalSecurity
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NewsTranscript
00:00Yeah, so I'm Will. I'm from Massachusetts, Boston.
00:04The city, yeah, yeah, the capital of the state, the capital of Massachusetts.
00:07That's right, yeah, my call sign, Passive Noise, the Boston.
00:10Yeah, it's where I'm from, so I said, why not? I'll go with it.
00:13Yeah, the guys get a laugh out of it. They get a kick out of it, yeah.
00:16Well, we were sitting down and trying to figure out what my passive noise should be,
00:19and one of them said, oh, you're from Boston, it should be Boston, Boston.
00:22I was like, okay, no, I like it, I like it.
00:24Yeah, so like I said, I'm from Boston, Massachusetts,
00:26and I served ten years in the U.S. Air Force,
00:29some years in the Massachusetts Air National Guard,
00:31and I did two years as a city councilor,
00:34and when I got involved in politics,
00:36I zoomed out into the international level of politics,
00:39and you really kind of stop and pause and think about what's going on here,
00:43and you feel like you have to do something about it.
00:45So I came in January, I spent some time in Moscow,
00:48and I came to Donetsk.
00:50I was in contact with some of the folks in Piatnushka,
00:52the international brigade in Donetsk,
00:54and I served there for three months,
00:56and then after that I had some friends that went on to serve with the Ministry of Defense,
00:59the 137th Brigade, where we're here,
01:01and they said, well, come on, come on, it's great,
01:03and so I decided to join them, and here we are.
01:05You said good skill. I didn't say it.
01:07Yeah, no, I had training, I had academic training.
01:10I was an E6 tech sergeant.
01:12My job was air-based defense.
01:14It's military, police, security forces.
01:16We deal with things like drones and other things,
01:19other problems, internal, external,
01:21and yeah, I've definitely been able to apply some of those skills,
01:24leadership skills as well here.
01:26Yeah, well, I mean, look, I've heard that question come up a lot,
01:29and what I say to that is the United States and Russia are not at war.
01:33The United States has done things that are very provocative, very bad.
01:37It's been involved in other people's politics,
01:40other nations' interests, and should not be doing that.
01:44I always say, and Sergey Lavrov said this a couple weeks ago,
01:47I think that the country is ran by different people
01:51than the people that live in the country and feel a different way.
01:55I think it's important for, I mean,
01:57we've got an election coming up in the United States.
01:59I think it's important for people to just do their own research
02:02and kind of read about things from independent news outlets
02:05and understand what's really going on here,
02:08understand that this started back in 2014 with our politicians
02:11coming down here and saying all sorts of different things
02:14and making all sorts of different promises,
02:16and this doesn't represent the true interests of the American people.
02:20What benefit is it for the United States
02:23to have million, multimillion-dollar tanks rolling down here
02:26trying to kill people, you know,
02:28missiles firing at a beach of innocent people?
02:31What interest is that? F-16s?
02:33There's no interest to that.
02:35Our country is trillions of dollars in debt.
02:37Our country is collapsing. It's falling apart.
02:39And it's just not, in my opinion,
02:42representative of the real interests of the American people.
02:44So when I hear that question,
02:46you know, I don't consider myself a traitor.
02:48The United States and Russia aren't at war.
02:50And, you know, in the future,
02:52I think that the people that caused this in my country
02:54should be held responsible for what they've done,
02:57and we can have some sort of friendship
02:59between Russia and the United States.
03:01Yeah, of course. I mean, I've, you know,
03:03I've worked downrange with these guys,
03:05like we say in the U.S. military, on the front,
03:07and I absolutely trust them to have my back 100%,
03:09and I know for a fact that they trust me as well.
03:11And, you know, I...
03:13What I always tell people is, because this also...
03:15This is a question that comes up in the U.S. military.
03:17It's about the people that you're with.
03:19It's about the people that, you know, you're serving with.
03:21Because this isn't... You know, this is...
03:23To be realistic, this is a dangerous situation.
03:25You know, we're all down here serving. We're doing our job.
03:27But what makes it or breaks it is the people that you're with.
03:30And, you know, these guys have been great.
03:32They speak English. They're professionals.
03:34You know, they help you when you need it,
03:36if I don't have something or if I don't understand something.
03:38I'm like, oh, boss, I need this or that.
03:40Like, no problem.
03:42You know, they teach me words. They teach me Russian.
03:44You know, they help me to deal with, you know, my girlfriend.
03:49You know, and they help me to navigate, you know,
03:51all the complexities and the cultural differences.
03:54And, again, it's about the people that you're here with.
03:57And I couldn't pick a better group of people to be here with.