Friendly Fire: russian Air Defense Strikes Own Helicopters Down

For two days in a row, russia has been losing military aircraft due to accidents. Yesterday, on May 12, communities reported a helicopter crash in Svitle village in russian-occupied Crimea. The Incident was witnessed by locals.

According to Horevica, a Mi-8 fell to the ground during a training flight. Both pilots died, preliminary investigation says the cause was a technical failure which sounds realistic given the fact russia has been cut off supplies of advanced aircraft electronics.

Read more: New Anti-Drone Protection of Moscow: S-400, Pantsir and Arctic Vehicles

Though this failure is nothing compared to the situation that happened today with two russian helicopters in the territory of the russian federation, about 50 km to the border with Ukraine.

Residents of the Bryansk Oblast saw two helicopters on fire above the Klintsy town. Reportedly, those were a Mi-8 and a Mi-24N (other sources suggest two Mi-8s)

Soon afterward, videos followed. Officially, russian media say the cause in both cases was that the "engine caught fire." But the footage tells a different story, the first helicopter was chased down by a missile – there is a high chance Bryansk air defense mistook it for a hostile. The chopper was hit just above Klintsy.

The moment the first helicopter falls:

Then, russian air defense apparently decided to catch up to the second helicopter, too. The aircraft managed to reach Suretsky Muravey village 10-12 km from Klimtsi before it was shot down.

The following video is claimed to show the second helicopter falling after a missile hit:

From the looks of it, russian air defense' actions were so hasty because of the increased activity of Ukrainian drones flying into russia over the past months. So the air defense operators neglected the proper identification of the aerial object.

In slow motion, we can clearly see a missile colliding into the helicopter, thus excluding the "engine on fire" explanation:

Additionally, russian media report the downing of two more winged aircraft in Bryansk Oblast, a Su-34 bomber and a Su-35 multirole fighter.

The footage below shows the falling of the Su-34:

Read more: ​The UK Defense Intelligence: 72 SMRB Withdraws in Disarray, Ukrainian Forces Regain Territory in Bakhmut Operation