A helicopter is shot down in Syria. The death of a Russian helicopter in Syria: main versions and questions. Where did the Russian documents come from?

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On Monday, August 1, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter was shot down in the Syrian province of Idlib. There were five military personnel on board: three crew members and two officers, the press service and information department of the Russian Ministry of Defense told Interfax. They all died. The head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Sergei Rudskoy, said that the crash area is under control terrorist group"Jabhat al-Nusra" (banned in the Russian Federation).

“On August 1, in the province of Idlib, as a result of shelling from the ground, a person returning to the Khmeimim airbase after delivering humanitarian aid Russian military transport helicopter Mi-8 to the city of Aleppo,” the Russian Ministry of Defense reported.

“On board the helicopter were three crew members and two officers from the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Warring Parties in Syria,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The Ministry of Defense said they were investigating the fate of the military. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that everyone in the helicopter died.

“Unfortunately, you already know the tragic news that came from Syria. A helicopter crashed there and was shot down from the ground,” Peskov said. “Everyone who was in the helicopter, as far as we know, 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 the loved ones of the fallen servicemen, RBC reports.

Meanwhile, the Shahba Press agency, close to the opposition, reports only four deaths, writes The Wall Street Journal.

Later, the Syria Today Twitter account published a video of the burning wreckage of the helicopter and local residents gathered around it.

August 1, 2016

One of the photographs shows militants dragging a body along the ground - presumably one of the military men in the helicopter; according to the militants, the pilot.

According to information not yet confirmed by the Russian military, the pilot’s name is Oleg Shelamov, judging by his passport data, he is a native of the city of Torzhok, Tver Region.

According to CIT, the place of work of the deceased pilot is Klin, near Moscow.

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, “ what 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 terrorist attack.

“Today a terrorist attack was committed as a result of which a Russian military transport helicopter Mi-8 was shot down, returning after carrying out 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 groups banned in Russia and other countries “ Islamic State"(IS), Jabhat 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 SAR 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 cessation of hostilities during last day complied with in most provinces.

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, armed groups of the Free Syrian army“The settlements of Tubal and Zuaikat were shelled,” the bulletin says.

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. Pair front-line bombers The Su-24M carried out a combat mission in the province of Latakia (area of ​​the settlement of Kepir) - it bombed militant positions.

When re-approaching the target, the pair was attacked by Turkish F-16 fighters. According to Ankara, Russian planes violated Turkish airspace, according to Moscow - all this time they were over Syrian territory. One way or another, but the plane RF-90932 tail number"83 White" was shot down in pursuit 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. Marine Alexander Pozynich died on board. 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 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 the 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 couple is clearly visible in the footage attack helicopters Mi-35M (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.

In the story of the helicopter shot down in Syria last week, even after several days, there are still more questions than answers. Why does the Ministry of Defense call the clearly identifiable Mi-35 the export Mi-25? What weapons were used to shoot down the winged vehicle and what does the United States have to do with it? The site tried to understand the situation.

Mi-25 or Mi-35?

“On July 8, 2016, Russian military pilot-instructors Ryafagat Khabibulin and Evgeniy Dolgin flew over a Syrian Mi-25 helicopter (an export version of the Mi-24 helicopter) with ammunition in the province of Homs (Syria),” these words begin the message distributed by the Russian military department about pilot deaths.

There were no doubts about the correctness of the Ministry of Defense data in the first days after the tragedy. According to the military bulletin The Military Balance, as of 2016, the Syrian government army owns 24 Mi-25D helicopters (index D means tandem cabin arrangement). After the official withdrawal Russian troops from the state in March 2015, instructors remained there to help Bashar al-Assad’s army fight terrorists and opposition forces in Syria.

The first questions arose on Sunday, July 10, when a video of the death was published Russian helicopter. It shows that it was not the Mi-25 that was shot down, but its much more modern modification, the Mi-35. Visually, it is distinguished by its fixed landing gear and shorter wings. This video is today the main source of information about what happened and all analytical materials in the media are mainly based on it.

Why did they try to hide the fact of the death of a modern combat vehicle? Perhaps due to the high export potential of the Mi-35, customer interest in which may decrease somewhat after this accident. It is no secret that the participation of Russian aviation in the fight against terrorists in Syria has led to a series of contracts for supplies abroad. military equipment and weapons. Now, when the Ministry of Defense wants to spend twice as much on weapons as financiers are willing to allocate, even a minimal loss of the image of a supplier of “invincible” weapons will be extremely unprofitable for Russia.

Arguments for: The agency itself argues for the version as follows:

“In the video you can see that immediately before the crash the helicopter fires NURS (unguided rockets), and after each shot a plume of smoke remains in the air, extending below the fuselage of the helicopter. However, at the moment the tail rotor of the helicopter is hit, we see that such a trail extends from the projectile The same plume of smoke coming from the object is slightly higher than the fuselage of the affected helicopter. The video also captures the trailing (following) helicopter, which is moving slightly higher than the leading (going first), downed helicopter. The combination of these factors allows us to at least seriously investigate the version that the Mi helicopter -35M was accidentally shot down as a result of a follower helicopter launching an unguided aircraft missile (NAR, also known as NURS). During the battle, the lead helicopter could accidentally fall into the line of fire of the follower helicopter, which was following just above the lead. This also explains the fact why ISIS (banned on the territory of the Russian Federation terrorist organization- ed.) did not publish a video recording of the actual launch of an ATGM/MANPADS missile."
Arguments against: The video does not show a single missile fired by the wingman helicopter, although it was moving a short distance from the downed Mi-35. “Friendly fire in aviation is very rare. There have been cases when wingman fighter-bombers have killed their leader, but this is unlikely. The wingmen pull back and go to the right or left, gaining lateral interval. Another thing is that you can get under friendly artillery fire , because an artillery shell does not fly straight, but along a curved curve, gains altitude, and then falls. So it could have hit. They shot at someone, and the helicopter was crawling at a low altitude and could easily get into the flight zone rockets or even barrel artillery", military expert Alexander Akhlyustin commented on the version. Another interlocutor of the site, reserve colonel Viktor Murakhovsky, shares a similar opinion. "I think this is excluded. A pair of helicopters operated in a ledge, with a significant displacement relative to each other. The video also does not show the approach of any object similar to an unguided missile or ATGM. We must understand that unguided rocket, and ATGM, and anti-aircraft missile have relatively low speeds, up to 700-800 meters per second, that is, when shooting at a frequency of at least 24 frames per second, such an object would be captured on video several times, but it is not,” the expert explained.

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