Video Shows Attack Helicopter Barely Missing Cars on Ukraine Highway

A video posted by the Ukraine Ministry of Defence is drawing amazed responses online.

The video, posted on Twitter with a female voice and the caption "Welcome to Ukraine," shows a helicopter flying extremely close to a roadway. A camera inside a vehicle traveling the opposite direction caught the scene.

Aside from its proximity to this unidentified roadway, helicopters flying low have not been a rarity throughout the Russia-Ukraine war.

It is a customary practice in times of war, as pilots on both sides of the conflict do their best to remain clandestine and not be identified by enemy radar. The practice also helps to avoid being shot down by surface-to-air missiles.

Forbes reported in June that two Russian Su-25 attack planes, in addition to one pilot, crashed during low-level flights while entering or exiting the war zone.

One video posted this past summer by the Twitter account Ukraine Weapons Tracker featured a Ukrainian Mi-8MSB-V helicopter launching a full pod of S-8 80-millimeter unguided rockets at Russian forces. A follow-up video posted by the same account showed helicopters flying low above a river.

In September, Euromaidan Press tweeted a video of a Ukrainian helicopter flying low above a cornfield.

"Due to [the] abundance of MANPADS (man portable air defense systems) on the front, the helicopters and ground-attack aircraft have to fly at extremely low altitudes," that video is captioned.

Ukrainian forces have been successful in taking out Russian helicopters in recent weeks.

On September 22, a Russian Ka-52 "Alligator" helicopter was shot down by Ukrainian forces by way of an Igla MANPADS. In a video shared on social media, the helicopter can be seen flying in the distance just before it is struck, and then continuing to travel for a short distance before crashing to the ground in a wall of smoke.

On October 12, Ukraine's air force said on Telegram that its anti-aircraft missile units destroyed four Russian helicopters, likely Ka-52s, in a duration of 18 minutes—between 8:40 a.m. and 8:58 a.m. local time. Officials said those aircraft were likely "providing fire support to the ground occupation troops in the southern direction."

While the Ukrainian air force did not specify the location of those successful attacks, the claims seemed to be partially substantiated by pro-Russian sources on Telegram.

As part of its release of daily statistics on Thursday, the Ukraine Ministry of Defence tweeted that approximately 66,650 enemy soldiers have been "eliminated." That report also indicates that 269 military jets and 243 helicopters have been destroyed.