Russians are licking their wounds. It was a powerful blow
The Ukrainian army hasn't celebrated such a success since the early days of the war with Russia. After the attack on the military airports in Berdyansk and Luhansk, the losses of the occupiers were huge, with several combat helicopters destroyed and just as many damaged. All thanks to the ATACMS ballistic missiles, which the Americans delivered to the authorities in Kyiv.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked military airports in Berdiansk and Luhansk on the night of October 16 to 17 Eastern Time, inflicting heavy losses on the occupiers. Battle helicopters were stationed in both occupied cities, particularly valuable to the Russians on the front. The balance is impressive, the professional blog Oryx claims that seven Ka-52 "Alligator" helicopters and two Mi-8 were destroyed.
Moreover, this is not the beginning of bad news for the Russians. It turns out that eight Ka-52 and seven Mi-8 have also been damaged, although it is not possible to exactly determine how heavily and whether they will be able to fly combat. The Ukrainians used ATACMS ballistic missiles, which they got from the Americans. Russian losses amount to millions of dollars.
One Kamov Ka-52, also known as "flying tank", costs about 16 million dollars.
According to the media, this was the first case of the Ukrainian army using ballistic missiles MGM-140 ATACMS supplied by the US, that is, precision missiles with a range of about 99 miles. Kyiv secretly received a batch of missiles and suddenly attacked the aggressor's forces. The Russians must lick their wounds and admit another painful defeat.
The Oryx blog, which has been documenting Russian losses since the beginning of the war with Ukraine, confirms the destruction of nine Russian helicopters: seven Ka-52s and two Mi-8s, which were based at airports in the occupied Berdiansk and Lugansk. Independent Russian portal Meduza followed up on this success of the Ukraine Armed Forces.
In July 2023, UK intelligence estimated that Russia had likely lost about 40 Ka-52 "Alligator" attack helicopters since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine; these are very threatening, but also extremely expensive combat helicopters. According to estimates from October 2022, the Russian fleet of Ka-52 helicopters consisted of 90 units. Today, only half of these machines are left in Moscow.
Multitask transport helicopter Mi-8, based on the Soviet design from the 60s of the 20th century, are machines of mass use in the Russian armed forces with a universal application. Dozens of versions of these machines (assault, passenger, Arctic) have been developed. Russia used them, for example, during an unsuccessful attack on Kyiv in February 2022. The same as for Ka-52, which was quickly driven away from the capital.
The aggressor on the front has lost almost 295,000 soldiers, 5093 tanks, 9653 armored vehicles, 7057 artillery systems, 320 airplanes, 324 helicopters, and 20 ships so far. Ukrainians are battling Russian assaults every day, inflicting severe losses, but they return and attack anew. This is a tactic that Moscow hopes will bring success on the front, but for now, it only means death and destruction.
