Ukranian Mi-8 transport helicopter ended its joyride in the Donetsk Region of Russia prematurely

Destroyed by a MANPAD

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Cynthia, I found this to add. This is the latest first.  

Two helicopters were shot down on the Donbass front today, 1 appeared to be from a Russian PMC...

1️⃣ A transport Mi-8 was shot down on the border of the DNR and LNR near Spornoye (on video). It has a red star on it and no two VVSU stripes on its tail. Helicopter pilots report that it is a Mi-8 that performed tasks in the interests of the PMC. According to some reports, the helicopter was purchased (received) from Belarus.

It flew along the frontline over our territory, and after the engine failure, the pilots tried to reach Nikolaevka, controlled by our troops.

2️⃣ Also today an AFU Mi-8 was shot down near Kostyantynivka and its photo was published earlier.

❗️ Due to a rare case when 2 helicopters of the same model were shot down around the same time - there was confusion in many channels and the Russian helicopter was mistaken for the Ukrainian one shot down first...

We agree with several authors: it is very strange to read persistent attempts to deny our dead guys. We've seen this before with the downing of the Mi-8 on Snake Island when many were proving that allegedly the AFU were filming their helicopter being shot down...

☦️It is reported that 2 Air Force veterans - members of our Mi-8 crew - died, and 1 survived.

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??? READ ABOVE FIRST.  All of the following was from early reports.

The AFU lost two Mi-8MSBs in 24 Hours⚡️

The Air Force has already lost two Ukrainian Mi-8 aircraft in 24 hours today. A couple of hours ago we identified (https://t.me/rybar/40770) the crash site of the Mi-8MSB in #Konstantinovka, and some time ago Daniil Bezsonov published (https://t.me/NeoficialniyBeZsonoV/19427) a video of another downed UAV. A little later there was footage from the Ukrainian side.

Coordinates: 48.794467, 38.267915

The Military Intelligence channel makes a neat suggestion that the downed Mi-8 near #Spornoye may have belonged to Russian army aviation.

It was not!

The Mi-8 was flying along the route #Berestovoye - #Spornoye along the line of contact. After it was hit by a MANPADS air defence system, the aircraft was driven towards the Russian positions in #Nikolaevka.

Explanation:

▪️ as @lostarmour (thanks Kloch4) write on the forum, the helicopter is missing a DISS unit under the beam. So it could either be an Mi-8MSB-V VVSU, or a Russian aircraft of rare special configuration that simply has no business being on the front line;

▪️ Those versed in war specify (https://t.me/voenacher/32329) that Russian Mi-8s do not fly to the line of contact alone: they are always accompanied by attack helicopters. The only exceptions are sorties by SAR teams, but the Air Force aircraft have not been shot down today.

▪️ The front line southeast of #Spornoye runs along the eastern edge of the road. Separate AFU units regularly make forays behind the leading edge and push through the Russian Armed Forces' defences in #Nikolaevka;

▪️ All Ukrainian Mi-8 aircraft of all possible modifications are used to provide fire support to the advancing units: they are operated both with machine guns and using "bushfire" launchers with rocket-propelled grenades.