Ukraine Downs Russian Helicopters After Armor Losses

The past week has seen an uptick in the number of Russian helicopters claimed destroyed by Ukrainian forces. Kyiv's units are making the difficult—and reportedly costly—transition from months of defense to offensive operations at multiple points along the 800-mile front line.

Ukraine's armed forces have—in their daily tally of claimed Russian personnel and equipment losses—reported six Russian helicopters destroyed in the past week. As of Tuesday, Kyiv has given the total as 306 since the full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022.

This figure is higher than the 90 Russian helicopter losses reported by the Dutch open-source outlet Oryx, though this includes only visually confirmed destroyed equipment. Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry by email to request comment.

The uptick in reportedly destroyed helicopters is in line with spiking Russian equipment and personnel losses down to Ukraine's nascent counteroffensive. This began earlier this month with large-scale probing attacks focused on southeastern Donetsk Oblast—particularly around the destroyed city of Bakhmut—and southeastern Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Any destroyed helicopters will be welcomed by Kyiv. It is under pressure to demonstrate its aptitude in wielding Western-provided weapons—particularly main battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles—against Russian forces. Well-publicized early Ukrainian battlefield losses include German-made Leopard 2 tanks and U.S.-provided Bradley armored vehicles.

At least some of those losses are believed to have been inflicted by Russian attack helicopters—specifically Ka-52 "Alligator" combat scout-attack helicopters—hovering over the battlefield.

Such aircraft are relatively unencumbered by harassing Ukrainian aircraft and mobile short-range air-defense systems—known as SHORAD—both relative weaknesses that Kyiv has repeatedly urged the West to help strengthen over 16 months of full-scale war.

Russia's Ka-52 fleet has been badly mauled since the full-scale invasion began, with Oryx reporting 35 destroyed, abandoned or captured aircraft since February 2022. Moscow is believed to have fielded some 100 Ka-52s before the war began.

But the surviving rotary-wing aircraft look to be playing a key role in fighting off Kyiv's counteroffensive. Recent satellite imagery from the Russian-occupied Berdyansk airport in southeastern Ukraine shows 20 new helicopters arrived in recent weeks. Among them, there were five Ka-52s, Hind-style attack helicopters, and naval helicopters.

Ukraine's helicopter problem may become more pressing as its troops advance deeper into Russia's multi-layered defensive lines. Each step forward lengthens Kyiv's supply lines and allows Moscow's forces to operate from further inside occupied territory.

Russian electronic warfare—a traditional strength of the Kremlin's armed forces—is proving effective in this regard, disrupting Ukrainian communications and weapons, helping augment the threat of helicopters and other aircraft.

Ukrainian officials have stressed the problem in their battlefield updates. President Volodymyr Zelensky last week acknowledged Russian "air and artillery superiority," while Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Mailar has reported "extremely fierce battles" exacerbated by "the enemy's aviation and artillery superiority."

Pavel Luzin, a Russian political analyst and visiting scholar at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, told Newsweek the Kremlin "faces a long-term challenge with its air power," which means attack helicopters and Ka-52s in particular will continue to play a vital role.

"It knows how to use single aircraft or pairs of them, but it cannot use them in the same way as NATO, due to lack of training, lack of planning, lack of reconnaissance, technical issues and the specifications of the aircraft themselves."

"So, how can they hit ground targets from the air? Only the combat helicopters can do this job. Su-25s also can but they are old, many of them are far beyond their operational lifetime. Mi-24s are also old enough. The quality of the Mi-28 is not good, and the Ka-52 is the most advanced and the most reliable Russian combat helicopter."

Even high rates of Ka-52 losses, Luzin said, will not stop Moscow from employing the aircraft. "They have no choice," he explained.

Updated 6/21/23, 2:45 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to include comment from Pavel Luzin.