Ukraine shot down Russia's Ka-52 (Alligator) attack helicopter in the air with a cheap FPV drone. The incident happened today. Although the crew (pilot and navigator) tried to make an emergency landing, they were destroyed by other Ukrainian drones.
The reason Ka-52s risk approaching the frontline is related to the beginning of a new phase of Russian army attacks in recent days. (This is also called the start of the spring-summer offensive). These attacks are accompanied by heavy losses of Russian infantry forces. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, in the last 3 days the Russian side has lost more than 4,900 soldiers dead or wounded.
The Ukrainian army, in turn, continues local offensive operations in the Dnipropetrovsk-Zaporizhzhia direction. Already 430 sq. km of territory has been recaptured.
Due to the destruction of more than 80 of Russia’s air defense systems and radars by the Ukrainian army during the winter, major gaps have arisen in the air defense of the occupying army on the frontline, Crimea, as well as much of Russian territory, which is why Ukrainian drones have been moving more freely recently and have advanced deep, striking successive blows to enemy infantry forces, military equipment, logistics, and industrial sites.
It has been confirmed by satellite imagery that on March 17, during the attack of Ukrainian drones on the aviation repair facility in the city of Staraya Russa in Novgorod Oblast, the rare A-50 radar aircraft was put out of commission.
Shahin Jafarli,
political analyst