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A Russian Ka-52 combat helicopter was shot down by Ukrainian forces near the fiercely contested city of Bakhmut, according to Ukraine's military.
The "Alligator" Ka-52 combat scout-attack helicopter "was shot down during an airstrike attempt on our positions," Ukraine's "Edelweiss" 10th separate mountain assault brigade wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. This was confirmed by Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine's East Grouping of Forces, Ukrainian outletUkrainska Pravda reported.
The helicopter was brought down using the Piorun MANPADS, a portable air-defense system, Cherevatyi said.
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian defense ministry for comment via email.
The Kamov Ka-52 is one of Russia's prized attack helicopters. The twin-seat, all-weather attack aircraft is a "highly upgraded version" of the earlier model Ka-50, according to the U.S. military. It can fire anti-tank missiles, air-to-air guided missiles, and be fitted with a 30-millimeter armament.
The Ka-52 can "execute any combat task with high efficiency," according to Russian state military exporter Rosoboronexport. It has coaxial main rotors and a modernized avionics suite, traveling at a maximum speed of approximately 186 miles per hour.
It's designed to destroy tanks, military vehicles, aircraft and manpower, including on the front lines, Rosoboronexport said.
Ukraine has previously publicized reports of downed Russian Ka-52 helicopters, and its General Staff said in an update on Thursday that Moscow had lost 292 helicopters since the start of the invasion. However, this tally doesn't specify the number of Ka-52 aircraft lost, and Ukraine's counts typically come in higher than many Western estimates.
Although Russia started its invasion of Ukraine with around 100 Ka-52 helicopters, according to Forbes, one count suggests it has now lost around one-third of its "Alligator" day-and-night attack helicopters, as of Thursday.
Russia has lost 33 Ka-52 "Alligator" helicopters since February 24, 2022, according to a count by Dutch open-source outlet Oryx, which visually confirms military losses in Ukraine.
By October 25, 2022, Russia had lost at least 23 Ka-52 "Alligator" helicopters, which represented "nearly half of Russia's total helicopter losses in Ukraine," the British defense ministry wrote on Twitter.
The losses were likely linked to Ukraine's use of MANPADS, and Russian commanders appeared to be turning to "high-risk attack helicopter missions" to back up its troops, the ministry added.
Back in January, Ukraine's air force said Kyiv's military had shot down three Ka-52 helicopters in just 30 minutes. The aircraft had been flying over the disputed Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the air force said in a post shared to Twitter.
Karolina Hird, a Russia analyst with the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank, previously told Newsweek that the Ka-52 is an "effective attack helicopter that is generally comparable to the U.S. AH-64 Apache."
About the writer
Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine ... Read more