Footage has emerged of a Russian military helicopter intercepting a Ukrainian naval drone, as Kyiv continues to wage an asymmetric maritime campaign that has forced Moscow’s warships out of swathes of the Black Sea.
The video—shared this week on various social media sites and published on Telegram by Ukraine’s Strana.UA outlet—shows what appears to be a Russian Mi-8 helicopter chasing down and destroying a Ukrainian naval drone, firing unguided rockets and machine guns at the system.
The Russian pro-war Helicopter pilot Telegram channel appears to be the first to have released the footage, claiming on Wednesday the video details the destruction of five Ukrainian naval drones “relatively recently.” One drone was destroyed using unguided rockets, and the rest with machine gun fire, the channel reported.
It is unclear when and where the video was shot. Newsweek cannot independently verify the report or footage and has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry by email to request comment. A Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesperson told Newsweek it could not comment on the video.
Drone operations have become a central aspect of Ukraine’s campaign against Russian naval forces in the Black Sea, which since the opening days of Moscow’s full-scale invasion has been a hot and strategically significant theater.
Russia’s overwhelming conventional superiority there has failed to subdue Ukrainian action, and Moscow has lost at least 12 vessels, per the Oryx open-source intelligence tracker. Kyiv has also used naval drones to attack port infrastructure and the Kerch Strait Bridge connecting the occupied Crimea Peninsula to Russia.
Defending against the weapons has become a key mission for Russia’s beleaguered Black Sea forces. This week, the Russian Defense Ministry announced training in “countering unmanned aerial vehicles and uncrewed surface vehicles” using a variety of platforms and weapons. The drills were also held at night, with Ukrainian forces often using the cover of darkness to launch drone attacks.
A July CNN report on Ukraine’s naval drone program said the weapons weigh up to 2,200 pounds and can carry explosive payloads of up to 661 pounds. The unmanned vessels have a maximum range of around 500 miles and top speed of 50 mph.
Kyiv’s “drone tsar,” Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, told Newsweek in August that Ukraine’s unmanned “naval fleet serves for conducting special operations, and for sure it has its role in the liberation of the temporarily occupied Black Sea coastal area.”
“Every naval drone is equipped with an autopilot system; video subsystems, including night vision; special communications protected from enemy’s electronic warfare; backup communication modules; and a warhead, as well as a ground-based autonomous control station, transportation and storage systems, and a data center,” Fedorov said.
Host photo agency / RIA Novosti via Getty Images
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.