It feels like Ireland cannot do much to help Ukraine in its fight with Russia. But I think that we can by bribing Russian pilots to defect with their planes.
This is allowed under the normal rules of war. Here is a story about Ukraine trying to do it. 'Russian aviators who were in the midst of bombing Ukraine to defect with their warplanes in exchange for $1 million a piece'. And it seems to have worked at least once.
Theres a good few wonk game theory analysis out there of the best schemes and how much it would cost. Make Desertion Fast
But at a simple level €10 million and an Irish passport would be pretty tempting for any pilot flying nearby to find they had an engine trouble and to ask to come in for an emergency landing. the passport reduces the worry of being repatriated back to Russia later. Of course not every pilot with the opportunity would defect for that money. But no plan is ever 100% effective.
Russia has lost about 300 aircraft in 2 years of war. At 10 million each that would be about €3 billion if offering defections doubled it. Which is not much more than Ireland, reasonably in my view, spends on helping victims of the war at the moment per year.
A price of €10 million per plane to help bring about the end of the war would be cheap. And if the scheme does not work and no one defects it would not cost us any money.
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