Satellite images published the other day show that as of October 29th, all russian helicopters vanished from the airfield in the occupied Ukrainian city of Berdiansk. The decision to pull the rotorcraft deeper into the rear comes in about two weeks after Ukrainian forces launched a missile strike on this air base, presumably taking down 9 out of 20 attack helicopters.
The updated satellite photos of the Berdiansk air base were provided by military analyst Brady Africk.
Read more: ATACMS it Was: New Photos Show the Missile Engine Found on Ruins of Russian Air Base in Berdiansk
We can compare these photos to the pictures of the same airfield from September 29th, before the strike, and see 20 helicopters of Ka-52 and Mi-8 types stationed there, that is almost an entire russian air regiment. The ATACMS, for reminder, hit the base on October 17th night.
This means it took a bit less than two weeks for russians to evacuate an air regiment, that is, not only the aircraft itself but also support and maintenance equipment which is an impressive quickness. The question remains, how many of these helicopters could leave the base on their own, and how many had to be transported on the ground.
So far we only have the preliminary official assessment from Ukrainian Special Operations Forces Command: nine helicopters damaged; and the estimate by Jakub Janovsky, an OSINT analyst at Oryx, who says a total of 15 helicopters were lost due to the strike, either destroyed or damaged to non-operational condition.
We should also remind that in some cases, estimating losses based on satellite imagery might be not correct, as in the case of a Ka-52 helicopter damaged by the cluster submunition of an M39 missile fired by ATACMS in an even earlier strike on Luhansk airfield. This example showed how even serious damage cannot be properly reflected in the photos taken from space.
Anyway, the fact that russians took their aviation to a safer place confirms the prognoses surrounding the arrival of ATACMS in Ukraine: that the new tactical missile will force russians to pull the assets even further from the frontline and scatter them, in the same manner as it was when Ukraine got HIMARS rocket systems for the first time.
Read more: What Happens to a russian Helicopter After a Hit by ATACMS (Photo)
