Ukrainian naval drones armed with heat-seeking missiles shot down two Russian helicopters and damaged a third above the Black Sea earlier this week, Kyiv said on Thursday. The unusual combat engagement marked the first known instance of a naval drone firing on and striking an aircraft.
The HUR credited the operation to a special forces unit called "Group 13," which fields the Magura V5, one of several naval drones in service with the Ukrainian military. Earlier this week, the HUR said that a Magura V5 drone took down a single Mi-8 with R-73 air-to-air missiles.
The crews of the destroyed helicopters, identified as Mi-8s, were killed, Ukraine's military intelligence agency, also known as the HUR, said on Thursday. The damaged helicopter managed to land.
The HUR published a radio intercept purportedly containing audio from one of the Mi-8 pilots after the Russian helicopter was hit. "There was a water launch," the pilot says in the recording, describing how a missile exploded near the aircraft.
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