Ukraine shoots down two Russian choppers in three minutes

Ukraine shoots down two Russian choppers in three minutes – weeks after blasting four helicopters in 18 minutes – as Putin’s forces increase air attacks in bid to reverse defeats in Kherson

• Anti-aircraft gunners shot down two £12million Ka-52 Alligators in Kherson
• Ukraine also blew up a Mi-8 helicopter gunship in Donetsk with missile attack
• Russia fired a huge volley of missiles at Ukrainian cities on Monday 

Ukraine has shot down two Russian attack helicopters in just three minutes in the latest blow to Putin’s botched invasion.

Anti-aircraft gunners hit the Ka-52 Alligators in Kherson region yesterday evening, Ukraine’s Air Force said.

The £12million single-seat attack helicopter is nicknamed the ‘Black Shark’ and has been described as Russia’s ‘deadliest helicopter’.

Its battlefield management system allows it to share data with other aircraft to coordinate attack operations.

The attack came just weeks after Ukrainian troops shot down four Russian helicopters in 18 minutes.

Ukraine also blew up a Mi-8 helicopter gunship in Donetsk after a surface-to-air missile picked it out of the sky yesterday. 

Ukraine has shot down two Russian attack helicopters in just three minutes in the latest blow to Putin’s botched invasion. File image of Ka-52 Alligator

Footage shows a Russian attack helicopter flying low across a field before it is hit by a missile in Donetsk

Footage shows the Russian attack helicopter flying low across a field before it is hit by a missile which explodes on impact but the chopper continues to fly for some time with flames gushing out of its left side.

The helicopter begins emitting black smoke and then comes crashing down in a fireball in a field, rolling onto its roof as its rotor breaks off.

The images were obtained from the 54th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Monday, 31st October, along with statement saying that the images were filmed on the ‘administrative borders of Luhansk and Donetsk regions’.

They added: ‘Somehow a Russian helicopter flew in to bring death to Ukrainian families, but the sky is tightly controlled by the glorious soldiers of the anti-aircraft missile division of the 54th Separate Mechanized Brigade.

The missile explodes on impact but the chopper continues to fly for some time with flames gushing out of its left side

The helicopter begins emitting black smoke and then comes crashing down in a fireball in a field, rolling onto its roof as its rotor breaks off

Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had shot down 45 of 55 cruise missiles yesterday, and a further Ka-52 alligator was downed

‘The soldiers saw a foreign ‘bird’ in the sky and did what had to be done – they ‘destroyed the harmful fly’ together with its crew.’

They signed off with ‘Glory to Ukraine!’

In October, Ukraine carried off a similar rampage, downing four helicopters in 18 minutes in the country’s south.

The helicopters – presumed to be Soviet-era KA-52 models – were taken down by Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile units.

During his evening address, Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had shot down 45 of 55 cruise missiles yesterday, and a further Ka-52 alligator was downed.

‘Today our air forces and everyone involved in protecting the skies did a great job,’ said Zelensky. ‘Most of the objects that the terrorists identified as targets were saved.’

Ukraine claims Russia has now lost about 72,470 personnel, 2,698 tanks, 5,501 armoured combat vehicles, 1,730 artillery units, 383 multiple launch rocket systems, 197 air defence systems, 276 warplanes, 257 helicopters, 1,415 drones, 397 cruise missiles, 16 warships, 4,143 motor vehicles and fuel tankers, and 154 units of special equipment.

Russia has claimed that its casualties have been much lower but provides infrequent updates on its latest figures.

A dog walks past a crater in the road from a missile strike, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, in the eastern Donbas region of Drobysheve

A view shows debris of a residential house destroyed by a Russian missile attack in Mykolaiv

A destroyed bridge to the Orthodox Christian monastery The Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra over the Siverskyi Donets river is seen

Just north of Kherson, Russia fired four missiles into the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv overnight, demolishing half an apartment building. 

Reuters saw rescue workers recover the body of an elderly woman from the rubble.

As rush hour was under way, passersby walked past a two-storey school, the front of which had been torn off by the force of the blast that left a massive crater.

‘This is what the barbarian horde does,’ said Irena Siden, 48, the school’s deputy director, standing in front of the gutted building as workers began sweeping up the rubble.

‘They (the Russians) are the descendants of the barbarian horde. They stole our history and how they are trying to steal our culture.’

Russia fired a huge volley of missiles at Ukrainian cities on Monday in what Putin called retaliation for an attack on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet at the weekend. 

Ukraine said it shot most of those missiles down, but some had hit power stations, knocking out electricity and water supplies.

‘That’s not all we could have done,’ Putin said at a televised news conference.

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