Ukraine’s military has released a video of the burning wreckage of a Russian Mi-8 helicopter on the war’s southern frontline, saying the aircraft was shot down by paratroopers.
“The Russian Mi-8 was shot down. Great work by the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade. It burns beautifully. Well done, warriors,” said Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, heading the Ukrainian armed ground forces on one of the southern Ukrainian fronts.
A 12-second video of the helicopter engulfed in flames was shared by General Syrskyi on his official Telegram channel late on Sunday. The location and the time of the destruction of the Russian helicopter was not immediately clear.
The Ukrainian armed forces have destroyed several of Russia’s fleet of Soviet-era Mi-8 attack helicopters during the course of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion.
In August this year, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter was captured after landing in Ukraine’s Kharkiv oblast following what Kyiv described as a long-term operation by Ukrainian intelligence.
It comes as fighting intensified over the weekend around the city of Avdiivka, in Ukraine’s Donbas, as well as in other sectors of the 1,000-km-long (600-mile) front. One top Ukrainian commander said clashes further north had “significantly worsened”, while another said Russian losses were mounting in the war’s southern sectors.
“What is happening now along the entire length of the [line of] contact is called ‘an active defence’,” Mr Putin said. “And our troops are improving their position at almost the entire area. Quite a large area,” he said in video remarks posted to social media by a Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin.
Mr Putin could be trying to temper expectations of significant Russian advances around Avdiivka, the US-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War said.
“Putin’s characterisation of Russian offensive operations near Avdiivka as an ‘active defence,’ instead of ‘active combat operations’ as Russian UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzya claimed on 13 October, or discussing Russian operations as an ‘offensive’ as some milbloggers have, may be an attempt to temper expectations of significant Russian advances,” the ISW said in its latest assessment.
It added that while Russian operations – including intensive artillery and airstrikes – are likely intended to degrade Ukrainian forces around Avdiivka, Russian forces are unlikely to make significant breakthroughs or cut off Ukrainian forces in the settlement in the near term, and potential advances at scale would likely require a significant and protracted commitment of personnel and materiel.
