Ukraine strikes biggest blow to Russia since beginning of war

The damage from Ukraine’s first-ever strike with American-supplied M39 missiles, targeting a pair of helicopter bases in Russian-occupied southern and eastern Ukraine, likely resulted in greater damage than even the Ukrainian defence ministry initially claimed.

The Ukrainians claimed the October 17 attack, which reportedly saw three of the M39s strike airfields outside Berdyansk in southern Ukraine as well as in Luhansk Oblast in the east, destroyed nine Russian helicopters, according to Forbes.

In fact, the M39 raid put out of action 21 helicopters, according to an analysis of commercial satellite imagery by GeoConfirmed, an open-source intelligence practitioner on the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

“This is probably the biggest blow to the Russian air force since the beginning of the war,” GeoConfirmed commented.

A second analysis, by the Ukrainian analysis team Frontelligence Insight, aligns with GeoConfirmed’s assessment.

“While their number slightly exceeds our team's public estimate, it's important to note that their estimate is based on solid grounds.”

To confirm a destroyed or significantly damaged helicopter, the analysts looked for satellite imagery depicting scorch marks around the known recent location of a parked helicopter. They cross-referenced the overhead imagery with photos and videos from Russian social media—and also looked for evidence of the Russians hauling away, from either airfield, damaged and unflyable helicopters.