Ian Lovett reports in the Wall Street Journal:
Ukraine’s military is holding up the helicopter teams as an example of its ability to get the most out of whatever equipment it has. More than a year into the war, helicopter units are playing an increasingly vital role in Ukraine’s efforts to hold the Russians back in the east. Artillery supplies are running low—and are needed for an expected Ukrainian offensive in the coming months—so the small fleet of attack helicopters is undertaking risky forays into the war’s hot spots to strike Russian positions without using precious long-range artillery shells.The two Soviet-era helicopters sped toward the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka just after dawn, flying 20 feet above the ground to keep the low-tech machines off radar.
Three miles from the city, the Ukrainian pilots climbed to 100 feet and unleashed a volley of rockets onto several industrial buildings north of the city. As they headed back to the airfield, they got word that Russian jet fighters were racing toward them. They landed immediately to avoid being easy targets.
More than a year into the war, helicopter units are playing an increasingly vital role in Ukraine’s efforts to hold the Russians back in the east. Artillery supplies are running low—and are needed for an expected Ukrainian offensive in the coming months—so the small fleet of attack helicopters is undertaking risky forays into the war’s hot spots to strike Russian positions without using precious long-range artillery shells.
The Ukrainian pilots are outnumbered and outgunned: Most of their helicopters are leftovers from before the fall of the Soviet Union—often older than their pilots. They have no encrypted radio systems and no radar to detect enemy jets or air-defense systems. The rockets they fire aren’t guided.
Still, the helicopter teams have been involved in some of the highest-profile missions of the war, including the resupply of soldiers trapped at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol and the recapture of Snake Island in the Black Sea. As Ukrainian officials press Western allies to send modern jet fighters—and warn that without more air-defense missiles, Russians could soon gain control of Ukraine’s skies—the military is holding up the helicopter teams as an example of its ability to get the most out of whatever equipment it has.
“The Russians have a huge advantage—modern equipment, radar,” Capt. Andriy Vinnitskiy said. Still, he said, his recent mission into Avdiivka was a success. “We hit the command post,” he said, and evaded the Russian jets.
Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London who studies air power and technology, said the most important role Ukraine’s helicopters play is shuttling personnel and equipment—including commanders and air-defense systems—quickly across a front line that stretches hundreds of miles.
He added that attack helicopters also allow Ukraine to conserve artillery ammunition, which is in short supply, and to quickly hit targets when artillery isn’t in range.
“It’s a tool you can use when you might not have local artillery batteries,” Mr. Bronk said. Despite the lack of modern technology, he added, the helicopters are “not as inaccurate as you might suppose.”
The 11th Army Aviation Brigade has recently been focused on attack missions in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces are laying siege to Bakhmut, as well as Avdiivka. They keep just a few helicopters at any given airfield, so no single hit can cause a catastrophic loss.
Before dawn, the pilots get intelligence reports about the latest movements of Russian antiaircraft systems—without radar in the helicopters, this is often the only information they get about where air-defense missiles could come from. By 6 a.m., they take off for their first of two or three daily sorties. Staying low to the ground, which keeps them off most radar, is their primary defense. Pilots say they sometimes fly just 5 or 10 feet above the ground.
The Ukrainian crews fly mostly Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters, which were designed in the 1960s. The only way to aim the rockets is to manually maneuver the helicopter itself. If the angle is one degree off, pilots said, they can miss a target by 200 yards.
“It’s like driving an old truck and holding a machine gun on top and trying to shoot at tanks,” said Maj. Yevhen Soloviov, a helicopter pilot and deputy commander. When they miss their targets, they watch GoPro footage of the flight afterward to see what they did wrong.
Repairs, Maj. Soloviov added, are constant. Only a portion of the 16 choppers in his squadron are currently able to fly, he said, declining to give an exact number.
Early in the war, pilots said, hitting targets was easier because the Russians weren’t prepared for any assaults from the air. A team of six helicopters could swoop in and take out an entire column of Russian tanks, firing from within half a mile.
“They were driving around Ukraine like it was a parade,” said Capt. Oleksiy Chyzh, a 30-year-old pilot. “They didn’t hide. They didn’t take any precautions. It was fun."
“We got cocky,” he added.
In March last year, he led a four-helicopter assault on a Russian column outside of Kyiv. With no radar, the squad didn’t see the Russian air-defense system: Three of the four choppers were hit and six crew members were killed. Only Capt. Chyzh and his co-pilot, who were thrown from their helicopter, survived.
Russian troops found the two men, both hardly able to move. Capt. Chyzh spent more than a month in captivity, then was traded back to Ukraine in a prisoner swap. He has spent most of the past year in Germany, receiving treatment for his leg, which was severely broken, and hoping to get back into the fight.
The entire squad has had close calls. Rescue missions into enemy territory, though rare, are often the most dangerous.
Last year, Capt. Vinnitskiy landed in the middle of the southeastern port city of Mariupol, which was under withering Russian attack. He loaded 23 injured soldiers into the helicopter—nearly twice as many as it was designed to carry—before taking off again. Bullets sprayed them as they flew home, and two of the injured troops were hit again.
Earlier this year, he said, an antiaircraft missile caught the tail of his helicopter during a mission into the occupied part of the Kherson region. “Luckily, I managed to get it back to base,” Capt. Vinnitskiy said.
The helicopter missions are part of a cat-and-mouse game in Ukraine’s skies. As Russians positioned more air-defense systems along the front, Ukrainian pilots started firing from farther away, making it harder to hit their targets.
In recent months, modern Russian jet fighters have become the greatest threat to the helicopter crews. Through most of last year, Maj. Soloviov said, the jets ignored helicopters. Last fall, they began taking them down.
“We can’t fight them,” Maj. Soloviov said, noting that the jets have radar and long-range rockets.
The helicopter crews have devised a low-tech system for alerting each other when they see a jet approaching. As soon as they get word of one, they land immediately, no matter where they are. After his recent strike on the Avdiivka command post, Capt. Vinnitskiy landed in the middle of a village, between two small houses. Once, Capt. Leonid Synelnyk, another pilot in the battalion, landed seven times on the way to Avdiivka. The trip, normally 20 minutes, took him well over an hour.
Usually, the pilots sit inside the helicopter and wait. If they get word that a jet is bearing down on them, they sometimes get out and run. “Just to take the crew away from the machine,” Capt. Synelnyk said.
Once the jets turn back, the pilots resume their missions.
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