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A Russian helicopter was shot down in Syria. Who did Russian aviation lose in the Middle East YouTube downed Russian helicopter in Syria

The experts' assessment differs from the Ministry of Defense data. Judging by the video, it was not a Mi-25, but a MI-35M. And the car was hit not during the return, but while working on targets

Two Russian military instructor pilots died in Syria near Palmyra. This was officially confirmed the day before by the Russian Ministry of Defense; the department’s statement was quoted by the media.

“On July 8, Ryafagat Khabibullin and Evgeniy Dolgin flew on a Mi-25 helicopter in Homs province. At this time, east of Palmyra large detachment ISIS militants (banned in Russia) attacked the positions of Syrian troops and began to move deeper into the area, creating a threat to capture the dominant heights. The crew received a request from the Syrian command of the group to defeat the advancing militants. Having used up its ammunition, when turning back, the helicopter was shot down by terrorists and crashed in an area controlled by the Syrian government army.”

The quality of the video allows us to see that the downed helicopter is most likely of the Mi-35 type - this is indicated by the landing gear, which on the thirty-fifth is not retractable, unlike its predecessors the Mi-24 and the export Mi-25.

The combat helicopter was hit in the tail boom and lost control. The helicopter fired before the hit. The video footage also shows a second helicopter of a similar type. According to Interfax, the helicopter was fired upon by an American TOW heavy anti-tank missile system.

I watched the video editor-in-chief magazine "Arsenal of the Fatherland" and member of the expert council of the military-industrial commission Viktor Murakhovsky.

editor-in-chief of the magazine "Arsenal of the Fatherland"“I watched the footage. Was shot down Russian helicopter Mi-35M. But they did not return; he was shot down during an attack on targets. The presenter was shot down. They worked as a couple traditionally. As for what was shot down, I don’t think it was anti-tank. guided missile, not to her. Now what measures can be taken. There is one feature there: when close air support of troops is provided, there must be close interaction between ground forces and combat helicopters. Normal preparation and normal interaction are not observed. Generally speaking, the operation of helicopters at extremely low altitudes, at cutting edge- This dangerous work traditionally. More careful planning is needed combat use helicopters and improve interaction with ground troops - with Syrian army».

As noted by the Ministry of Defense, reserve units of the Syrian troops for the transfer and deterrence of terrorist attacks on in this direction there wasn't. The dead pilots have been presented with state awards. Relatives of the pilots whose helicopter was shot down in Syria will receive insurance compensation in the amount of two million three hundred thousand rubles from the Sogaz company, TASS reported.

To date Russian authorities officially confirmed the death of 13 military personnel during the operation in Syria, including Dolgin and Khabibullin. In March of this year, President Putin ordered the withdrawal from Syria most of Russian contingent. Russian aircraft, however, continue to strike militant positions in Syria.

A Russian Mi-8 helicopter was shot down in Syria, returning from Aleppo to the Khmeimim airbase. A vehicle carrying five soldiers crashed in Idlib province. Since November 2015, the Russian Aerospace Forces, under various circumstances, have lost four helicopters and a Su-24 front-line bomber in Syria.

Turkish zugzwang

The first loss occurred on November 24, 2015. A pair of front-line Su-24M bombers carried out a combat mission in the province of Latakia (area of ​​the settlement of Kepir) - they bombed militant positions.

When re-approaching the target, the pair was attacked by Turkish F-16 fighters. According to Ankara, Russian planes violated airspace Turkey, according to Moscow, were over Syrian territory all this time. One way or another, the plane RF-90932, tail number “83 white,” was shot down by an air-to-air missile.

The pilots ejected over an area controlled by militants opposed to Damascus. The crew commander, Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Peshkov, was shot by them while still in the air, and navigator Konstantin Murakhtin managed to land and escape.

A search and rescue team was sent from the Khmeimim base. Her Mi-8AMTSh helicopter was damaged by fire from the ground and made an emergency landing. Died on board marine Alexander Pozynich. The car was subsequently destroyed by militants using a rocket. anti-tank complex.

Night fall

On the night of April 12, 2016, it crashed in Homs province attack helicopter Mi-28N returning from a combat mission. Crew members - Andrei Okladnikov and Viktor Pankov, who served at the air base in Budennovsk before being sent to Syria - died.

The helicopter was not fired upon from the ground, the Defense Ministry said. An industry source suggested that the car crashed due to a collision with the ground while being piloted in difficult conditions.

Subsequently, it was reported that the crew, flying with night vision goggles, could have lost control and the vehicle collided with some kind of obstacle. Sources in the investigation commission confirmed this conclusion at the end of April 2016, citing human factor as the reason.

“Mi-28N pilots performing a flight dark night over a directionless area with difficult terrain, they lost their correct spatial position, as a result of which the helicopter collided with the ground,” noted a source in the commission.

The helicopter that wasn't there?

On July 8, 2016, a helicopter was shot down near Palmyra. On board were the commander of the 55th separate regiment army aviation Colonel Ryafagat Khabibullin and pilot-operator Lieutenant Evgeniy Dolgin, both died.

The official position of the Russian Ministry of Defense today is still that a Syrian Mi-25 helicopter (the export version of the Mi-24D helicopter) with a Russian crew was shot down. According to Znamenka, this happened when the car was turning back after being hit. An anonymous source in the military department, also noting that the vehicle, having used up ammunition, went on a reverse course, linked the death of the helicopter to the use of the American TOW anti-tank system by militants.

However, the published video does not confirm this version. The footage clearly shows a pair of Mi-35M attack helicopters (such machines are used by the Russian air group in Syria). They were on a combat course, and the damaged vehicle launched unguided missiles immediately before the defeat.

The hit to the tail rotor, also recorded on video, does not correspond to the picture of the use of TOW missiles. In particular, this is evidenced by the absence of a trace of the approaching missile, the limited nature of the destruction, as well as the localization of the hit. One of the realistic versions is the use of anti-aircraft artillery by militants.

Returning from Aleppo

At the end of July, the Russian military announced a large-scale humanitarian operation in the Aleppo area. The successes of the Syrian army and allied forces (including Iranian and Hazara volunteers) led to the encirclement of a large militant group in the northeastern part of Aleppo. On July 28, it was reported that three corridors were being opened from the city for civilians to exit and a separate corridor for militants who decided to lay down their arms.

On August 1, 2016, in the Syrian province of Idlib, a Mi-8AMTSh helicopter was shot down, returning to the Khmeimim airbase after delivering humanitarian aid to the city of Aleppo. Judging by numerous photographs of the wreckage published online, we're talking about about the RF-95585 vehicle (tail number “212 yellow”), photographed at the 562nd Army Aviation Base in Tolmachevo (near Novosibirsk) before the start of the Syrian campaign.

The Ministry of Defense reported the loss of another helicopter of the Aerospace Forces as part of an operation against militants in Syria. According to the department, on August 1, a Mi-8 military transport helicopter, returning to the Khmeimim airbase after delivering humanitarian aid to Aleppo, was shot at from the ground in the Syrian province of Idlib. Earlier, Al-Jazeera TV channel reported that a helicopter shot down by the opposition fell in the south of Aleppo province.

“On board the helicopter were three crew members and two officers from the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Warring Parties in Syria. The fate of Russian military personnel is being clarified through all available channels,” the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

The opposition news agency Shahba Press reported, “ that's all crew members died. The Kremlin said there is “no precise information yet” on the number of people killed in the incident.

“Those who were in the helicopter, according to information received from the Ministry of Defense, died. They died heroically because they tried to take the car away in order to minimize casualties on the ground. The Kremlin deeply sympathizes with all the loved ones of our fallen servicemen,” the presidential press secretary told reporters.

The General Staff is trying to clarify the whereabouts of Russian military personnel. The head of the Russian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General, said that “according to available information, the helicopter was shot down from the ground over an area under the control of armed formations and units of the so-called “moderate opposition” that joined it.” He qualified the incident as a terrorist act.

“Today, a terrorist attack was committed as a result of which a Russian military transport helicopter Mi-8 was shot down, returning from a humanitarian mission to deliver food and medicine to residents of the city of Aleppo,” the general said.

— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) August 1, 2016

MENA journalist Björn Stritzel also posted a photo of the missile block on Twitter with the caption: “In Soviet Russia 57 mm rockets are considered humanitarian aid."


Analyst of the International Strategic Institute IISS, editor of The Military Balance, Joseph Dempsey, in his microblog, draws attention to the details of the rotorcraft, calling the model Mi-8 AMTSH (transport-assault modification). In particular, to a container located in the tail of the helicopter with, presumably, a complex electronic warfare"President-S".


Let us recall that the Center for the Reconciliation of Warring Parties in Syria was created on February 22, 2016 at the Khmeimim airbase to facilitate the negotiation process on reconciliation between representatives of the Syrian authorities and the opposition, with the exception of the Islamic State (IS) and Jabhat groups banned in Russia and other countries al-Nusra" and other organizations recognized as terrorist by the UN Security Council, as well as to conclude ceasefire agreements and organize the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Last week, Russia, together with the Syrian government, began new stage humanitarian operation in Syria - four humanitarian corridors were opened in the besieged city of Aleppo: three for civilians and one for militants with weapons and equipment. Since then, the number of settlements in the Syrian Arab Republic that have joined the truce has reached 327. In the last 24 hours alone, reconciliation agreements have been concluded with representatives of 17 settlements in the provinces of Es-Suwayda and Latakia.

According to the center, the ceasefire regime has been observed in most provinces over the past 24 hours.

However, four violations were recorded in Damascus province per day, and two more in Latakia.

“Formations of the Jaish al-Islam group, which considers itself to be an opposition group, fired mortars at the settlements of Jawbar, Arbil, Duma and Harasta in Damascus province. In the province of Latakia, the armed formations of the Free Syrian Army shelled the settlements of Thoubal and Zuaikat,” the bulletin says.

A Russian Mi-8 helicopter, carrying three crew members and two officers, was shot down in the Syrian province of Idlib, the Russian Ministry of Defense said. According to the military department, the helicopter was shot down when it was returning to the Khmeimim base after delivering humanitarian aid to the city of Aleppo.

“On August 1, in the province of Idlib, as a result of shelling from the ground, a Russian military transport helicopter Mi-8 was shot down returning to the Khmeimim airbase after delivering humanitarian aid to the city of Aleppo,” Interfax quotes a message from the Russian Ministry of Defense. “On board the helicopter there were three crew members and two officers of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Warring Parties in Syria. The fate of Russian military personnel is being clarified through all available channels."

A little later, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that no one survived the crash. “Those who were in the helicopter, as far as we know from the information received from the Ministry of Defense, died. They died heroically because they tried to take the car away in order to minimize casualties on the ground,” Peskov said. He added that “the Kremlin deeply sympathizes with all the loved ones of our fallen servicemen.”

Photos and videos that presumably show one of those killed in the Mi-8 crash appeared, in particular, on Twitter @todayinsyria (18+).

— Syria Today (@todayinsyria) August 1, 2016
August 1, 15:47 According to , close to the main command of the Aerospace Forces (VKS) of the Russian Federation, the helicopter was relocated to Syria from the military airfield in Klin. To Klin, presumably, one of the dead pilots worked.


Some journalists questioned the humanitarian mission of the helicopter, as one of the videos from the scene showed an empty rocket block remaining after the crash. The Russian Ministry of Defense assures that “humanitarian cargo - 500 food kits - was dropped from an Mi-8 helicopter into areas of the city of Aleppo under the control of armed formations.”
The plane crashed in an area that presumably (18+), belongs to the Jaysh al-Fateh (Army of Conquest) group. It is a coalition of militant factions opposing the Syrian government in the civil war.

August 1, 18:40 Head of the main operational management Sergei Rudskoy, General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said that the helicopter was shot down over an area under the control of the terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra, banned in the Russian Federation.

“Today a terrorist attack was committed, as a result of which a Russian military transport helicopter Mi-8 was shot down, returning from a humanitarian mission to deliver food and medicine to residents of the city of Aleppo. On board were three crew members and two officers of the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of Warring Parties in Syria," he said.

Also, according to Rudsky, a group of up to 5 thousand militants on Sunday tried to carry out an attack southwest of Aleppo, but was repulsed by the Syrian army with the support of Russian aviation. “The attack was preceded by suicide bombings of four infantry fighting vehicles filled with explosives at positions of government troops. The offensive was carried out under the leadership of Jabhat al-Nusra,” he said.

“During the fighting, over 800 militants, 14 tanks, ten infantry fighting vehicles, and more than 60 vehicles with installed weapons were destroyed,” Rudskoy said, adding that Russian aviation actively supports the actions of the Syrian army in the Aleppo region to repel militant attacks and carries out selective strikes. At the same time, Rudskoy emphasized, Russian aviation unlike the US-led coalition, it does not strike targets located within urban areas.

TASS


August 1, 20:59 Gazeta.ru, citing a source in the Ministry of Defense, named the names of the three dead crew members (the names of the other two dead military personnel are still unknown):
The commander of the Mi-8 military transport helicopter shot down in Syria was 33-year-old captain Roman Pavlov, he is survived by his wife and daughter, a source in the military department told Gazeta.Ru.

Pavlov and pilot-navigator 29-year-old senior lieutenant Oleg Shelamov, whose documents were posted in social network Twitter a number of users were graduates of the Syzran Higher Military aviation school pilots.

The crew's flight engineer was 41-year-old captain Alexey Shorokhov. He left behind a wife and two children - a son and a daughter.


According to 63.ru, on board the aircraft were graduates of the Syzran Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots (SVVAUL).


Condolences in connection with the attack on the Russian plane were expressed, in particular, in Washington. Meanwhile, the UN said it was monitoring “the escalation of the situation in and around the city of Aleppo,” calling for “the earliest possible restoration and strengthening of the ceasefire.”

August 4, 03:40 A Syrian organization calling itself the "General Foundation for Prisoners" Affairs, which had not previously appeared in the information field, stated that it had the bodies of the dead Russians in its possession. The group also demanded the release of prisoners from Syrian prisons. About this RBC reports with reference to Reuters:

According to the agency, the group said it was holding the bodies of five Russians. The group is willing to hand over the bodies if ​prisoners held in Damascus-controlled prisons and also held by Hezbollah in Lebanon are released. The statement did not specify the names of the prisoners or their number.

The group also demanded an end to the siege of areas that are blockaded by the Syrian army and its allies. Representatives of the General Fund for Prisoners' Affairs insist on delivering a significant amount of humanitarian aid to people living in these territories.

As noted by Reuters, the statement shows documents that presumably belong to those killed in the Mi-8 crash.


August 4, 11:51 Several bodies of dead Russians are in the possession of the militants Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (the new name of Jabhat al-Nusra, the group is banned in Russia), a source close to the command of the Aleppo militia told RIA Novosti. “We don’t know for sure yet whether the terrorists have two or three bodies,” he said.

This is the second helicopter carrying Russians shot down in Syria in the last 30 days. July 9 terrorists banned in the Russian Federation" Islamic State". Two Russian pilot-instructors Ryafagat Khabibulin and Evgeniy Dolgin, who were on board, died.

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