He joined the Soviet Armed Forces in 1959, and sent to study at the Kremenchug Military Aviation School for the initial pilot training.

However, in 1960 it was disbanded, and some of the cadets, including Kornukov, were transferred to the Chernigov Military Aviation School of Pilots named after the Lenin Komsomol, which he graduated with honors in 1964.

In 1980, he graduated in absentia from the Military Academy of Air Defense named after Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov.

[4] On 1 September 1983, while en route from New York City to Seoul, South Korea with stopover in Anchorage, Alaska, Korean Air Lines Flight 007, a Boeing 747-230B carrying 246 passengers and 23 crew, went astray and entered Soviet airspace, first over Kamchatka.

Kornukov received the command from Kamensky to shoot down the airliner, while it was over the international waters of Okhotsk, having exited Kamchatkan air space.

"[8]Kornukov gave the order for the shootdown as KAL 007 was about to pass out of the Soviet airspace over Sakhalin Island into International air space: "Oh (obscenities) How long [does it take him] to go to attack position, he is already getting out into neutral waters.

[10] Kornukov, who had retained his position even when, in 1976, a pilot under his command, Victor Belenko, had defected to Japan with his MiG-25—the most advanced Soviet fighter of the time—also survived the KAL 007 incident, eventually attaining the highest appointment possible in his field of service.

[10] Asked how he felt about the victims on board KAL 007, Kornukov said the downing left him with some "unpleasant feelings"[11] but suggested that casualties were simply the price that had to be paid.

He believes that KAL 007 was a provocation from the United States, designed to identify the weaknesses of the Soviet air defense and to worsen Soviet-American relations.

[5] In August 1991, he was appointed as commander of the Moscow Air Defense District, which covered military and civilian facilities on the territory of 29 constituent entities of the Soviet Union and later of the Russian Federation.

Deinekin was pressed to resign after a Russian Air Force Antonov An-124 cargo plane crashed after takeoff at Irkutsk Airport and landed on a nearby apartment complex, killing over 60 people.

"To begin with, the Baltic states should be reminded that good-neighbor relations have nothing to do with military aircraft barraging along the neighboring country borders.

[15]After his retirement from the Air Force, Kornukov worked as deputy general director of the Almaz Scientific and Production Association for Military-Technical Policy, which is responsible for the development of anti-aircraft missile systems and other air defense systems, and is the head enterprise of the military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation.