The Ukrainian government posted an incredible video of a Russian Mi-35 helicopter being shot down by the Ukrainian forces using a surface-to-air missile on Saturday in the latest sign of Moscow’s mounting losses in the war.
A few hours ago, the Ukrainian defense ministry posted a video to Twitter, which captured the moment of a Mi-35 attack helicopter shot down by a Stinger missile. The helicopter was engulfed in fire, killing the pilot.
The video footage published by Ukranian defense ministry shows a missile allegedly fired from the Stinger MANPADS and knocked out the helicopter. The helicopter lost control and, starting to lose altitude, overturned and fell into an array of trees and exploded.
According to reports, Russia has been facing greater than expected resistance from Ukraine’s forces fitted with Western armoury.
Not just aircraft, the Ukrainian military fighting the much larger Russian invasion force has been able to kill hundreds of Russian tanks and armoured vehicles using a hand-held anti-tank missile supplied by the US, reports have said.
One Berlin-based Eastern Europe expert Sergej Sumlenny predicted that the Russian military could be “on the verge of collapse”.
“RU obviously has no reserves left: the tanks they send to the front are very old, without active armor, look like training machines. They do not have trucks, using civilian ones,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Russian flat-bombing of Ukrainian cities is the opposite of what a nation which is about to conquer its wealthy neighbor (and Ukrainian province is wealthier than Russia’s one) It is a sign of desperation. Exactly as the attempt to use Red-Cross-marked trucks as ammo transports,” he said.
“Within the last days, the number of Russian warplanes and helicopters shot by the Ukrainian army has increased: at least four warplanes and one helicopter. We are in the 10th day of war, and Ukrainian air defense is still working, and Russian pilots are dying,” Mr Sumlenny said.
On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Western sanctions were akin to war as his forces pressed on with their assault on Ukraine, where planned civilian evacuations from two besieged cities were called off.
Russia and Ukraine traded blame over the failure to provide safe passage to civilians fleeing the two bombarded cities on the 10th day of a war that has fuelled Europe’s biggest humanitarian disaster in decades.
The war, which began with Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, has sent nearly 1.5 million refugees fleeing westward into the European Union and provoked unprecedented international sanctions on Moscow and warnings of a global recession.
On 5 February, Ukrainian Soldiers reportedly have shot down a Russian Mi-35M Hind assault helicopter in Southern Ukraine.
Details are still limited, but according to a local source, the helicopter was shot down in Sahy, in the southern Kherson region, Ukraine.
Mi-35Ms are generally used for attack and military transport missions. Mi-35M is one of the combat helicopters in the Russian Air Force inventory. It is also operated by the armed forces of Venezuela, Brazil, Azerbaijan, Nigeria, Kazakhstan and Mali.
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