Ukrainian navy drones take down two Russian Mi-8 helicopters over Black Sea, doubling initial loss report

The Russian military lost two multi-purpose Mi-8 helicopters over the Black Sea, rather than just one as originally believed.

Several Russian aviation bloggers write about this.

This was the first time in history that an unmanned boat from Ukraine's Defense and Security Forces successfully fired R-73 missiles.

According to reports from Ukrainian intelligence, on December 31, the military of Group 13, a special unit of Ukraine's intelligence, launched a Magura V5 naval drone armed with missiles during a battle near Cape Tarkhankut in temporarily occupied Crimea in the Black Sea.

According to intelligence, as a result of the use of R-73 "SeeDragon" missiles, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter was destroyed.

However, the Russian Aviation Telegram channel writes that on the night of December 30-31, the Russian occupiers lost two Mi-8 helicopters.

The Fighterbomber Telegram channel, hosted by Russian military man Ilya Tumanov, confirms the loss of "crews," that is, more than one:

It is essential to emphasize the second highlighted fragment in the message:

"We haven't lost so many of the best guys at once since 22."

In the comments under the post on the Russian Aviation Telegram channel, one user mentions that the discussion pertains to 16 Russian military personnel.

There were eight service members on each of the two Mi–8s, the standard crew for this type of helicopter. This includes:

• pilot,
• pilot-navigator,
• and flight engineer.

The rest are additional personnel, particularly machine gunners and, recently, even FPV drone operators.

There were videos, at least in September 2024, of the Russian Black Sea Fleet training to use FPV drones from a helicopter.

In other words, the crew of the helicopter could include:

– 3 crew members;

– 3 machine gunners;

– 2 external FPV drone pilots.

However, in any of the options, using an unmanned boat with two R-73 missiles was effective since each of them successfully found its target. None of the rockets could hit an air target in the previous known case.

It was previously reported that one of the new modifications of the Magura unmanned maritime platform already has R-73 missiles on board. These are Soviet-made air-to-air missiles with an infrared homing system.

For reference:

• The Ukrainian surface drones first targeted the Russian reconnaissance ship "Ivan Khurs." On May 24, 2023, three drones, located 140 km northeast of the Bosphorus Strait, successfully carried out an attack on the ship.

This was a noteworthy defeat, especially considering the Russian Black Sea Fleet only had three boats of Project 1241.1 equipped with weapons.

• In addition, on the night of February 1, 2024, six Magura V5 units attacked the Russian missile boat "Ivanovets". It sank, resulting in the death of all crew members (approximately 40 people).

As the representative of Ukraine's intelligence, Andrii Yusov noted at the time that there were only three such boats in Russia.

• This year, on February 14, the large landing ship "Ceasar Kunikov" was sunk near Alupka.

The special forces from "Group 13" of Ukraine's intelligence have successfully completed a mission using Magura V5 drones to destroy a Russian vessel, which was one of their newest large landing ships.

• Finally, the Russian patrol ship of Project 22160, "Sergey Kotov." Last year, in September, Ukrainian fighters managed to damage this corvette. But this night, Magura V5 drones near the Kerch Strait finally destroyed one of the youngest such ships of the enemy fleet.

In addition, the enemy suffered losses among the personnel, which are still being specified.

• On the night of August 9, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense took out another Russian high-speed boat called the "Tunets" near Chornomorske in the temporarily occupied Crimea using a MAGURA V5 naval strike drone.

This isn't the first time a Tunets has been caught off the coast of the peninsula: back in May, two Russian ships of the same kind were destroyed by reconnaissance aircraft, and two others were damaged.

It should be noted that last year, the Ukrainian military already destroyed at least two such boats. The occupiers use them, in particular, to patrol the Kerch Bridge. In particular, last fall, the Ukrainian Navy destroyed such a boat in the northwestern part of the Black Sea during an attempt by the occupiers to land.