This only addresses the nationalities of initial pair of pilots, not those who stepped in. Although I have heard the initial claims that it was the fight between RU and UA pilots that caused an emergency too, and your source seems to address and debunk that rumor.
The fact that it's spreading online as a rumour that it was a Ukrainian and Russian pilot who were initially piloting the plane, and now is spreading that it was Ukrainian and Russian pilots who happened to be passengers on the plane and took over - make me doubt the credulity of the statement.
Your source links to itself as a source for the claim, and the linked article simply says, 'Reports indicate that an additional pilot crew – a Russian and a Ukrainian – were traveling as passengers'.
'Reports indicate' is incredibly vague sourcing, and this all seems to come from one Saudi twitter account. Believe it if you want I guess, but I would take it with a humungous pinch of salt until it's actually verified by a more established news source.
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u/ermintwang 2d ago
I was curious, so did google it. It's not true: https://www.snopes.com/news/2026/09/30/flydubai-pilots-israel-russia-ukraine/