On 6 July, the Kyiv authorities showed journalists the remains of several Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft sent by the UK to the USSR under the Lend-Lease program during World War II. The remnants of eight Hurricanes have been recently discovered in Kyiv Oblast.
“It is symbolic that right now Ukraine is also waiting for a Lend-Lease, especially for fighter aircraft to liberate our country from the fascists of our time – the racists,” Serhii Popko, Head of Kyiv City Military Administration, said.
Oleks Shtan, a former airplane pilot leading the excavation, previously told BBC that this is the first such large Hurricane discovery on the territory of Ukraine.
According to BBC, the UK sent about 3,000 Hurricanes funded by the US to the USSR between 1941 and 1944. Most were destroyed in combat or dismantled for parts, but some were deliberately destroyed after the war by the Soviet authorities to avoid payments to the US. According to the Lend-Lease legislation, the USSR was obliged to pay for any transferred military equipment that remained undamaged after the end of hostilities.
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