[imagesource: YouTube / The Telegraph]

At times, watching the footage coming out of Ukraine, it’s possible to forget that this isn’t some modern-day version of Saving Private Ryan.

These are real people, under attack and fearing for their lives, watching on as a battle is fought on the streets and in the air.

The resilience of both Ukrainian forces and everyday citizens has been remarkable.

In the same vein, many of the Russian troops have little desire to invade their neighbours and have gone into battle woefully underprepared.

Ground troops have fled, leaving tanks behind, and videos like this one below will do little to lift morale.

Ukraine’s armed forces claim to have shot down a Russian military helicopter, posting footage to the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff Facebook page.

The Aviationist reports that the Russian Mi-24/35 gunship helicopter was hit on Saturday, March 5, “by a Ukrainian man-portable air defense system or “MANPADS””:

The video was verified as being genuine. We initially had doubts it could have been doctored: the emergence of several videos of dogfights, done in DCS flight simulator but actually fake, made us almost paranoid and believe this one could also have been computer-generated.

However, thanks to our followers and readers we have been able to determine the current DCS capabilities are current unable to reach this degree of realism…

The footage must have been taken by a drone (possibly a quad-rotor type like the DJI series), with some sort of HDR enhancement filter (possibly applied in post-processing phase) that would explain the extremely vivid colors.

The video below shows the moment of impact as well as a slowed-down replay:

The site goes on to call it “perhaps the clearest ever video of an operational use of a small, man-portable air defense missile being used in an operational setting”.

Footage has also emerged showing a Russian jet being shot down over Kharkiv, shared by Oleg Synegubov, the regional governor of Kharkiv.

It shows a Russian Su-25 fighter destroyed by Kharkiv’s Air Defence Forces, as onlookers cheer.

The video has been verified by independent sources:

A Russian Sukhoi Su-25 has been downed in Kharkiv.
National Guard air defense is working.
Note the witnesses’ reaction: pic.twitter.com/b3E5JfCbPv

— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) March 6, 2022

You can follow live updates from Ukraine via CNN and the BBC.

[source:aviationist]