The horizon disappears for a moment as the nose of the helicopter rears. There’s a faint thump as rockets trailing brown smoke arc ahead. The aircraft banks as if flicked on its side by an outside force.
Diving back towards to the ground it spurts flares from its tail to distract heat-seeking missiles.
Somewhere in the battle for the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, Russian soldiers are being torn apart, and burned, as the ground itself erupts when the rockets find their target. There’s no time to reflect – the effect of the rockets will get passed back to the pilots later. Their task now is to stay alive.
Ukraine’s losses are a national secret. But pilots and air crew in the Sikorsky Brigade have all lost close friends to Russian SAMs (Surface to Air Missiles). Often shoulder launched, the man-portable missiles can send a helicopter into a ball of flame in seconds.
They’re hunted. Whether airborne or not. Ukraine’s air force and army aviators along with their planes and helicopters, are priority prey for Russia’s missiles. They’re likely top of the Kremlin’s list.
CNN spent time embedded with the Sikorsky Brigade in eastern Ukraine operating from a secret base. It has a handful of helicopters and pilots there, conducting combat missions against Russian forces.
Given the gigantic advantage that Russia enjoys over Ukraine in terms of aircraft and pilots it’s staggering that Ukraine can still threaten Russian forces. Indeed it’s baffling that almost one year into the conflict Ukraine has an air force and helicopter fleet at all, given the effort to destroy them.