“It’s a joke, not armor,” Anatolii said, pointing to the protective panels of his Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter, with which he fired rockets at Russian positions.
The 39-year-old shooter has completed some 300 combat missions since last spring.
As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pressures his Western allies for more modern equipment, pilots operating in eastern Ukraine openly discuss the dilapidation of their Soviet-made helicopters.
For them, Ukraine is clearly overtaken in this area by Russia in terms of technology.
Anatolii’s Mi-8 helicopter was designed in 1986 in the USSR. Originally intended for transport, it is nevertheless deployed by Ukraine in the context of combat missions, despite the absence of armored protection against attacks.
Drawn on the cabin, a Cossack riding a dragon proclaims: “Fight and win, God will help you”.
Right next to it is stationed an Mi-24 attack aircraft, a smaller, more maneuverable and heavily armored model, which flies with the Mi-8s during missions.
The helicopters take off from a field at an undisclosed location in eastern Ukraine, kicking up straw in the whirlwind of their blades.
Returning from a mission, dressed in a jacket and a cap, the pilot of the Mi-24, Vladyslav, covers his face with a scarf to speak to AFP.
“It’s scary because they (the Russians) have invented new ways to attack us, to destroy our helicopters,” he said.
If Ukrainian helicopters fly very low to avoid detection by the Russians, they can be targeted by fighter jets flying at a distance of 140 kilometers and at more than 1,000 meters altitude.
Their detection system “lasers us. That’s why their missiles can reach us,” he explains.
“Only way to survive” according to him, infrared decoy rockets launched by the Mi-24 to deflect Russian homing missiles.
“This helicopter is 35 years old and I can say that it is a young helicopter, because the Mi-8 helicopters are 45 years old”, says the pilot.
According to him, “these old devices have metal wear problems and Ukraine cannot produce new gearboxes, new engines and new blades” to replace damaged parts.
The fuselage is also vulnerable: “The Russians only need one rocket to hit us and the helicopter is down.”
“I think we need Black Hawk and Apache. These helicopters are very similar to our Mi-24 and Mi-8, and they have new types of missiles,” Vladyslav adds, citing two American aircraft.
“If we had Apaches or Black Hawks, the situation would be totally different,” said Andriï, 28, a Mi-8 pilot. “It is better to have what the United States and Europe have,” he pleads.
The problem also concerns the reconnaissance systems used to spot enemy positions.
“The first month was absolute hell. We didn’t know where the enemy air defenses were,” said the young man.
Even today, Russia “can see half of Ukraine”, says Anatoliy, while “we only see the most basic things” on the Russian side.
If Vladyslav covers his face to speak, it is to protect his identity, because the Russians seek to eliminate helicopter pilots, according to him. “We are like treasure in an army,” he says.
“A pilot is a very expensive product,” he explains, costing the training at more than 300 million hryvnias (7.5 million euros at the current rate).
“We lost a lot of comrades and helicopters. I can’t give a figure because it’s a secret,” he regrets.
Some Western officials have questioned the effectiveness of supplying Ukraine with more modern combat aircraft, requested by kyiv, in particular because it requires a long period of training for pilots.
But for helicopters, “it’s only half a year” of training assures Vladyslav who insists on the similarities of the Black Hawk and Apache, with their Mi-8 and Mi-24. “When you want to live, you learn quickly,” pleads Anatoliï.
03/27/2023 14:41:16 – On a helicopter base (Ukraine) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
