Daring Ukraine Helicopter Raid Disrupted Russians, Helped Save Pokrovsk

Helicopters are no longer seen as a crucial tactical benefit on the battlefield as drones have reduced them to lumbering liabilities.

Which is why Ukraine, once again demonstrating its innovative and adaptive brilliance, deployed them where least expected - in drone-besotted Pokrovsk - where the Russians were too surprised to take them down before they could drop off commandos who then held open escape routes through which more exposed Ukrainian units could withdraw to better positioned new lines. The result is that the Kremlin time-table is delayed once again, undermining Putin's ability to claim actual battlefield competence. JL 

David Axe reports in Trench Art

On Oct. 29, a pair of American-made Blackhawk helicopters rotored low over the western outskirts of Pokrovsk and dropped off 22 Ukrainian "Timur" special operators. The commandos were part of a wider operation to hold open an escape route for Ukrainian troops holding back Russian infiltrators in Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad. The Russians clearly weren’t expecting a pair of Blackhawks to appear over one of the most dangerous stretches of the 700-mile front line. Their rarity was an advantage. “The helicopters provided the element of surprise.”

On Oct. 29, a pair of American-made Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters operated by the Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate rotored low over the industrial western outskirts of the fortress city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.

Passing over a Russian ambush drone idling on the ground presumably near the O0525 highway threading into Pokrovsk from the west, the helicopters dropped off 22 commandos from the Tymur Special Unit.

The commandos sprinted toward the nearby campus of Pokrovsk’s Geological Research Directorate. Ukrainian drones and at least one captured Russian tank provided covering fire.

No one outside of the Ukrainian armed forces and special operations and intelligence agencies knew what the mission was, at first.

More than a week later, it’s becoming clearer. The commandos were part of a wider operation meant to hold open an escape route for Ukrainian troops struggling to hold back a growing number of Russian infiltrators in Pokrovsk and neighboring Myrnohrad.

It was a risky op. Helicopters rarely appear directly over the front line of Russia’s 45-month wider war on Ukraine for a good reason. They are extremely vulnerable to air defenses and attack drones.

But their rarity was an advantage in this case, as

the Russians clearly weren’t expecting a pair of Blackhawks—out of just three the Ukrainian intelligence directorate operates—to appear over one of the most dangerous stretches of the 700-mile front line. “The helicopters provided the element of surprise,” the pro-Ukraine Conflict Intelligence Team explained.