Russia has said that its attack helicopters have hit Ukrainian military units.
The footage purports to show a Russian combat helicopter taking to the skies from an undisclosed location and flying low over countryside before unleashing its deadly ordnance on unseen Ukrainian targets.
The images then reportedly show the Russian combat helicopter returning to base.
The images were obtained from the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Thursday, 30th May, along with a statement claiming: “Drone operators from the Crimean paratroopers corrected the targeting of a Ukrainian self-propelled artillery unit during counter-battery combat in the Orekhov direction.”
The Russian MoD added: “During counter-battery combat in the Orekhov direction in the Zaporizhzhia region, drone units of the Guard Airborne Assault Don Cossack Regiment of the Novorossiysk Guard Mountain Division of the Airborne Forces, in collaboration with the artillery crews of the 122-mm towed howitzers D-30 of the Crimean paratroopers from the Dnipro troop grouping, destroyed a Ukrainian self-propelled artillery unit northwest of the settlement of Verbove in the Zaporizhzhia region.
“The Russian paratrooper-artillerymen fired from concealed positions at a range of up to 8 kilometers. The enemy was detected, and further fire adjustments for the howitzers were made using aerial reconnaissance by the drone units of the regiment.
“As a result of the joint combat efforts of the drone crews and Airborne Forces artillerymen, the Ukrainian self-propelled artillery unit, along with its crew, was located and destroyed. After the unit was hit, its ammunition load detonated.
“Having completed their combat mission, the drone operators and paratrooper-artillerymen promptly left their firing positions.”
We have not been able to independently verify the claims or the footage.
