Vladimir Minayev was born in 1917.

He graduated from flight school in 1940.

Leitenant Minayev was posted to 611 IAP in December 1942. This unit was still equipped with Polikarpov I-153s and operated on the Transcaucasian Front,

In the morning on 5 March 1943, the I-153 Chaikas from the 611 IAP, covered by some LaGGs, attacked two enemy airfields, and destroyed some aircraft on the ground. Near Blagodatniy airfield, 3 Eskadrilya under command of leitenant Minayev attacked some Ju 52/3ms in the air and Minayev destroyed one of them north of Zaporozhskiy by using RS-82 rockets. Another pilot from this group, serzhant A. Povitskiy attacked two other Ju 52/3ms and hit the engine on one of them causing the engine to start burning. He finished it off with RS-82 rockets; the wreck fell near the village of Plavenskiy. The third pilot, leitenant A. Chistev, destroyed the last Ju 52/3m near Melekhovskiy.
The I-153s didn’t suffer any losses but one aircraft was damaged by Flak.

Minayev didn’t return from a combat mission on 22 March 1943.

At the time of his death, Minayev was credited with 3 biplane victories.
These had been claimed during more than 80 combat missions.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1943
1	02/02/43		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	I-153		Transcaucasian Front	611 IAP
2	05/03/43	morning	1	Ju 52/3m	Destroyed	I-153		N Zaporozhskiy	611 IAP
3	22/03/43		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	I-153		Transcaucasian Front	611 IAP

Biplane victories: 3 destroyed.
TOTAL: 3 destroyed.

Sources:
All aces of Stalin 1936-1953 – Mikhail Bykov, 2014
Le Chaika et l’attaque au sol (Les I-153 dans le Caucaseet au Kouban en 1942-43) – Dmitriy Karlenko, 2003 Air Magazine No.17 dec 2003/jan 2004, kindly provided by Ondrej Repka
Soviet Aces 1936-1953
Soviet Fighter Pilots 1936-1953 - Mikhail Bykov
Additional information kindly provided by Ondrej Repka.