How a Russian helicopter was shot down in Syria. The death of a Russian helicopter in Syria: main versions and questions

In Syria on the morning of August 1, a Russian Aerospace Forces helicopter was shot down. The Mi-8 was returning to Khmeimim airfield after successfully completing a humanitarian mission: it was for the civilians of Aleppo. In Idlib province, a car was hit by fire from the ground and fell in an area occupied by terrorists. The Russian Ministry of Defense has already confirmed that those who were on board.

Armed men quickly surround the burning wreckage in black clouds of smoke - this Russian helicopter Mi-8. The frame was burned to the ground, and some parts were almost intact, such as the tail rotor blades. Shouts of "Allahu Akbar", Arabic speech and machine gun fire can be heard.

A Russian helicopter delivered humanitarian aid to Aleppo province. He was already returning back to the Khmeimim airbase when a homemade missile overtook him in the south of Idlib province. anti-aircraft complex, which in Lately are quite often used in Syria by various terrorist groups.

“The helicopter was shot down from the ground over an area under the control of armed formations of the terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra and those affiliated with it,” explained the head of the main operational department General Staff RF Armed Forces Sergei Rudskoy.

The Mi-8 is one of the most common helicopters in the world; the machine is simple and reliable. The first model took off back in 1961, but the G8 is still in service with almost all countries on the globe.

The Mi-8AMTSh, also known as the “Terminator”, and this is the modification used in Syria, this time carried out a purely civilian mission. There were five people on board: three crew members and two officers from the Russian center for reconciliation of warring parties.

“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 press secretary emphasized chapters Russian state Dmitry Peskov.

Aleppo is now under siege by Syrian government troops, and inside the encirclement, in addition to militants banned in Russia, ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, there are 200 thousand civilians. Together with official Damascus, the Russian military announced the start of a humanitarian operation: special corridors have been organized from the city through which anyone can leave besieged Aleppo. And the checkpoints, even though the mission has just begun, are already full of refugees. For many, evacuating the city is the only chance to survive.

“I knew the way and was able to escape here. They immediately gave me shelter and greeted me. The state takes care of us. I hope that the rest of my children will also be able to escape. They were caught by militants. They used me and my children as a human shield,” says the Syrian woman .

It was announced that those who want to lay down their arms can also leave the city. Eighty-two gang members have already surrendered. The militants responded to the large-scale humanitarian operation with terror.

“The terrorist units of ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra and the formations of the so-called “moderate opposition” that have joined them continue continuous attacks on units of the Syrian armed forces, both in the north of Aleppo and in the south, with the aim of encircling the city. suicide terrorists,” stated Sergei Rudskoy.

In a week, two hundred and fifty local residents were killed and nine hundred wounded. Militants are deliberately exterminating civilians. August 1st at Once again fired from jet systems volley fire handicraft areas of Al-Khalidiya, Leramon, Al-Asad, Nayrab Airport and shopping mall"Castello".

ALL PHOTOS

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 the control of the 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.

In the story of the one shot down in Syria on last week helicopter 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 disseminated 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 of a Russian helicopter was published. 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 currently the main source of information about what happened and that’s all analytical materials The media is 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), while after each shot a plume of smoke remains in the air, extending below the helicopter fuselage. However, at the moment the tail rotor of the helicopter is hit, we see that the same plume of smoke extends from the projectile, coming from the object somewhat 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 makes it possible, at a minimum, to seriously investigate the version that the Mi-35M helicopter was accidentally shot down as a result of the launch of an unguided aircraft missile (UAR, also known as NURS) by a follower helicopter. During the battle, the leading helicopter could accidentally fall into the line of fire of the trailing helicopter, which was following just above the leading one. 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 someone, but the helicopter was crawling at a low altitude and could easily fall into the flight zone. rockets or even cannon 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 an unguided missile, an 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.

A Russian Mi-8 helicopter, carrying three crew members and two officers, was shot down in the Syrian province of Idlib, the Russian Ministry of Defense said. According to the military department, the helicopter was shot down when it was returning to the Khmeimim base after delivering humanitarian aid to the city of Aleppo.

“On August 1, in the province of Idlib, as a result of shelling from the ground, a Russian military transport helicopter Mi-8 was shot down returning to the Khmeimim airbase after delivering humanitarian aid to the city of Aleppo,” Interfax quotes a message from the Russian Ministry of Defense. “On board the helicopter there were three crew members and two officers of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Warring Parties in Syria. The fate of Russian military personnel is being clarified through all available channels."

A little later, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that no one survived the crash. “Those who were in the helicopter, as far as we know from the 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,” Peskov said. He added that “the Kremlin deeply sympathizes with all the loved ones of our fallen servicemen.”

Photos and videos that presumably show one of those killed in the Mi-8 crash appeared, in particular, on Twitter @todayinsyria (18+).

— Syria Today (@todayinsyria) August 1, 2016
August 1, 15:47 According to , close to the main command of the Aerospace Forces (VKS) of the Russian Federation, the helicopter was relocated to Syria from the military airfield in Klin. To Klin, presumably, one of the dead pilots worked.


Some journalists questioned the humanitarian mission of the helicopter, as one of the videos from the scene showed an empty rocket block remaining after the crash. The Russian Ministry of Defense assures that “humanitarian cargo - 500 food kits - was dropped from an Mi-8 helicopter into areas of the city of Aleppo under the control of armed formations.”
The plane crashed in an area that presumably (18+), belongs to the Jaysh al-Fateh (Army of Conquest) group. It is a coalition of militant factions opposing the Syrian government in the civil war.

August 1, 18:40 The head of the main operational directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Sergei Rudskoy, said that the helicopter was shot down over an area under the control of the terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra, banned in the Russian Federation.

"Today is perfect terrorist attack, as a result of which a Russian military transport helicopter Mi-8 was shot down, returning from a humanitarian mission to deliver food and medicine to residents of the city of Aleppo. On board were three crew members and two officers from the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of Warring Parties in Syria,” he said.

Also, according to Rudsky, a group of up to 5 thousand militants on Sunday tried to carry out an attack southwest of Aleppo, but was repulsed by the Syrian army with the support of Russian aviation. “The attack was preceded by suicide bombings of four infantry fighting vehicles filled with explosives at positions of government troops. The offensive was carried out under the leadership of Jabhat al-Nusra,” he said.

“During the fighting, more than 800 militants, 14 tanks, ten infantry fighting vehicles, more than 60 vehicles with installed weapons were destroyed,” Rudskoy said, adding that Russian aviation actively supports the actions of the Syrian army in the Aleppo region to repel militant attacks and carries out selective strikes. At the same time, Rudskoy emphasized, Russian aviation unlike the US-led coalition, it does not strike targets located within urban areas.

TASS


August 1, 20:59 Gazeta.ru, citing a source in the Ministry of Defense, named the names of the three dead crew members (the names of the other two dead military personnel are still unknown):
The commander of the Mi-8 military transport helicopter shot down in Syria was 33-year-old captain Roman Pavlov, he is survived by his wife and daughter, a source in the military department told Gazeta.Ru.

Pavlov and pilot-navigator 29-year-old senior lieutenant Oleg Shelamov, whose documents were posted in social network A number of Twitter users were graduates of the Syzran Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots.

The crew's flight engineer was 41-year-old captain Alexei Shorokhov. He left behind a wife and two children - a son and a daughter.


According to 63.ru, on board the aircraft were graduates of the Syzran Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots (SVVAUL).


Condolences in connection with the attack on the Russian plane were expressed, in particular, in Washington. Meanwhile, the UN said it was monitoring “the escalation of the situation in the city of Aleppo and around,” calling for “the earliest possible restoration and strengthening of the ceasefire.”

August 4, 03:40 A Syrian organization calling itself the "General Foundation for Prisoners" Affairs, which had not previously appeared in the information field, stated that it had the bodies of the dead Russians in its possession. The group also demanded the release of prisoners from Syrian prisons. About this RBC reports with reference to Reuters:

According to the agency, the group said it was holding the bodies of five Russians. The group is ready to hand over the bodies if prisoners held in Damascus-controlled prisons and also held by Hezbollah in Lebanon are released. The statement did not specify the names of the prisoners or their number.

The group also demanded an end to the siege of areas that are blockaded by the Syrian army and its allies. Representatives of the General Fund for Prisoners' Affairs insist on delivering a significant amount of humanitarian aid to people living in these territories.

As noted by Reuters, the statement shows documents that presumably belong to those killed in the Mi-8 crash.


August 4, 11:51 Several bodies of the dead Russians are in the possession of the militants Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (the new name of Jabhat al-Nusra, the group is banned in Russia), a source close to the command of the Aleppo militia told RIA Novosti. “We don’t know for sure yet whether the terrorists have two or three bodies,” he said.

This is the second helicopter carrying Russians shot down in Syria in the last 30 days. July 9 terrorists banned in the Russian Federation" Islamic State". Two Russian pilot-instructors Ryafagat Khabibulin and Evgeniy Dolgin, who were on board, died.

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