When Germany attacked the USSR in 1941, the Soviet naval aviation met the enemy with dignity. Moreover, it participated in the first air battles, even bombed Berlin. Naval pilots became the first Heroes of the USSR in the war. They managed not to lose the fighting capability of their equipment when others were destroyed at the airfields.

Even after the collapse of the USSR, the naval aviation of Ukraine and the Russian Federation still shared a significant amount of common history. Novofedorivka played a prominent role therein, although it appeared relatively recently on the administrative map. This is the official name of the village in the western part of the Crimean Peninsula since 1992. It is known for its air base on the seashore, which actually develops into a settlement. The city of Saki is located 7 km away, so the military unit was named after this toponym.

An airfield for training purposes was built here back in the 1930s, with the prospects of establishing the Saki airbase. The airfield was renovated during the Nazi occupation. In the 1970s arms race, the scientific and training complex «NYTKA» for the pilots of Soviet aircraft carriers began to be built here. The components of the complex structure, like the aircraft cruisers themselves, were manufactured in Mykolaiv. At the end of 1997, Ukraine and the Russian Federation agreed to jointly use the training ground, but in 2008 these agreements were temporarily suspended due to the Russian invasion of Sakartvelo. In 2014, the Russians came to seize Crimea as well, although most of the agreements on the Black Sea Fleet were valid and even prolonged by pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. The naval aviation base in Novofedorivka came under the full control of the Russian Federation at the end of March.

The title of the Hero is still awarded as the highest state award both in Ukraine and in Russia. Military pilots still receive Gold Stars in both countries, but under very different circumstances.

In Kyiv, on May 11, 2022, Colonel Ihor Bedzai was posthumously awarded the title of the Hero of Ukraine. He managed to continue the work of several generations of Ukrainian naval pilots with dignity. He was the head of the flight safety service – a senior inspector-pilot of the Command of the Military Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In 2014, in Novofedorivka, he managed to timely recognize Russian aggressive intentions and redeploy the military equipment of the 10th Saki Naval Aviation Brigade of the Navy to the mainland. The 1st-class combat pilot continued his service in Mykolaiv. Later, he received a promotion in Odesa. He accumulated around 2,000 flight hours. He performed the most difficult combat tasks during the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Ihor Bedzai died while performing one of his combat missions. A young specialist who had just become a father was supposed to be the pilot. Bedzai also rarely saw his family during the full-scale war. He was aware of the risk and decided to replace the pilot. That flight on May 7, 2022, had a search and rescue mission, five Ukrainian military serviceman were on board. Despite the fact that the white helicopter was unarmed, it became the target of a Russian Su-30 near the Danube Delta. Ihor Bedzai skillfully evaded two shots from the fighter jet. As he promised in numerous interviews, he did everything he could until the end. The lives of all the crewmembers of the Mi-14 were taken by an R-73 guided missile launched by the enemy.

At the beginning of July 2022, after lengthy battles over Zmiinyi Island, the Ukrainian flag was raised there. However, even at the end of July, the Moscow authorities awarded the title of Hero of Russia for the alleged «disruption of Ukrainian intentions to seize the island». Ilya Syzov then received his «Golden Star». He is a participant in the invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, the deputy commander of the 23rd Assault Aviation Regiment from the Khabarovsk region. Syzov is quite a public person, he is proud of his participation in punitive operations in Syria, and his «dynastic» inclination to military affairs. According to Syzov himself, he was the one who targeted the Ukrainian Mi-14 in May 2022. He considers the killing of Ihor Bedzai and the entire rescue crew a heroic act.

Having seized the peninsula, the Russian side continued to violate even specific agreements. Thus, the first loss among the personnel of Ihor Bedzai's brigade happened already on April 6, 2014. On that day, a Russian contractor, junior sergeant Yevhen Zaitsev, killed the head of the operational department of the staff of the brigade, Major Stanislav Karachevskyi, with two close-range shots from an assault rifle. He was packing his things to leave the officer's dormitory and came to say goodbye to the airfield.

The traitors of Ukraine in the Crimea faced the superior attitude of the Russian military; they were even kept separately while lining up. Those who had served in the Russian Black Sea Fleet before the occupation lost some of their benefits. Now, according to the Russian government, they did not serve on the territory of another state, so they did not receive additional financial allowances.

The new «masters» of the military base in Novofedorivka were often negligent in carrying out their duties. In 2017, two Russian servicemen accidentally launched a guided X-29TD missile on the airfield. Due to this incident, two missiles were written off, as well as special equipment for checking their combat capability, and the hangar was seriously damaged.

With the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, Russian naval aviation takes an active part in hostilities; Crimean airfields are used as bases from which Russia launches airstrikes on Ukrainian regions. Saki has become one of the key staging grounds for such crimes.

On March 5, 2022, a Ukrainian soldier managed to shoot down Russian Su-30SM from Novofedorivka in the Mykolaiv region, which particularly suffered from aerial attacks. This and similar incidents received wide response. The captured pilots and their navigators were interviewed several times, and they held a large press conference. 32-year-old Major Oleksii Holovenskyi of the 43rd Naval Aviation Regiment also agreed to publicly the share information, including about the life of his unit in Novofedorivka.

According to the commander of the aviation squadron of military unit 59882, he carried out seven combat flights since February 24, 2022. The main functions of the 43rd Aviation Regiment are the control and patrolling of the Black Sea waters, radio-technical reconnaissance, and, if necessary, the identification of targets. Odesa, Mykolaiv, Ochakiv, and Kherson became important targets for his regiment. Those present at the press center in Kyiv were impressed by the fact that Holovenskyi has close family ties to Ukraine. His mother still lives in Poltava region.

In June 2022, Volodymyr Zelenskyi awards the 10th Naval Aviation Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the name of Hero of Ukraine Colonel Ihor Bedzai. The unique brigade still successfully performs tasks in the maritime sector.

Within six months after the airstrike on the Saki airbase of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, a Russian travel blogger shows the still-closed entertainment facilities and polluted coastline of the temporarily occupied Novofedorivka.

The August footage of Russians fleeing the Crimean beaches becomes viral on the Internet and inspires Ukrainians for further struggle and creative projects. Sound producer Ihor Habaraev/FRSHMND records a popular track using the voice of a Russian woman from one of these videos as a basis. Shocked by the clouds of smoke in the distance, she, unlike Major Holovenskyi, still remembers her mother – she calls her to urgently leave Crimea: «Mommy, my dear mommy, let's go! We gotta get out of here! We need to leave, this is already some kind of trash! Your wooden house won't do us any good! It's not too late yet, maaaaaamaaaaa!».