Ukraine reports destroyed combat helicopter – but the video leaves questions open

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Ukraine reports destroyed combat helicopter – but the video leaves questions open.

A drone of the 115th independent mechanized brigade is said to have shot down a Russian Mi-28NM, according to Ukrainian claims – the crew was killed. It sounds like a clear success report from the war. The video meant to prove this success, however, ends precisely where the answer to the crucial question would begin.

What the video is missing

The Ukrainian military website Militarnyi documented the attack on October 14. According to it, an FPV drone of the Prybultsi anti-aircraft battalion steered toward the Russian combat helicopter and went into intercept course. Just before the possible impact, the footage cuts off – an impact, a crash, or an explosion is not visible. The reported destruction cannot be confirmed on the basis of this sequence, the website itself writes. Until then, it is a claim with incomplete visual evidence.

Two locations, one incident

Researchers who evaluated publicly available material placed the attack near the village of Yasonosorenskoye in the Russian Belgorod region, not far from the Ukrainian border. At the end of the video, however, a post from a Russian Telegram channel is shown. It reports the crash of a military helicopter in the Voronezh region – three crew members killed. The two location details don't match. Whether the Telegram post actually describes the same incident could not be clarified in Militarnyi's report.

A pattern that repeats

The fact that footage leaves questions open in helicopter shootdowns is no exception in this war. Already on August 6, 2024, a Ukrainian FPV drone hit a Mi-28 over the Kursk region, according to a source in the domestic intelligence service SBU speaking to the newspaper The Kyiv Independent – reportedly targeting the tail rotor. Back then too, the published video ended before the result. The Russian military blogger Alexey Syemzov reported at the time that the helicopter had been forced to land; the crew had survived, and the machine had been taken in for repairs.

This time from the water

Ukraine's military intelligence HUR took a different approach on December 31, 2024: off Cape Tarkhankut on the western coast of Crimea, a Magura V5 surface drone destroyed a Russian Mi-8, according to the news agency Reuters. On January 2, 2025, the intelligence service corrected its tally: two Mi-8s destroyed, a third machine managed to land damaged – according to the Ukrainian news website Ukrainska Pravda citing the service's updated figures. Unlike the current incident, floating drones carrying anti-aircraft missiles were used then – not air-based FPV drones.

What remains in the end

A drone, a brigade, a Mi-28NM machine – and a video that doesn't show the crucial second. Plus two location details that don't match. Those who want to assess the success would do best to wait for an independent classification. Until then, skepticism in this war is not taking sides, but journalistic craft – especially when the evidence doesn't keep pace with the claim.