[imagesource: The EurAsian Times]

Another of Russia’s Ka-52 ‘Alligator’ helicopters, one of the best attack choppers in the world, went down in a fiery ball after being shot mid-air by Ukraine forces.

It is reported that the attack chopper was shot down in the middle of the day local time in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine on Sunday, which The Daily Beast notes as a striking show of force as Ukraine turns the tide in the nearly yearlong war.

Per Defence Blog, the Ukrainian military claimed they got the job done after the Russian attack helicopter tried to attack its position on the front line near Svatove:

“Today, around 2:00 pm, a unit of the Dneprovsk anti-aircraft missile brigade of the Vostok Air Command shot down an enemy Ka-52 helicopter,” the report says.

A video has been doing the rounds, showing the moment the chopper went spiralling toward the ground, leaving a puff of smoke in its wake.

Down and dusted:

Soon after, the Kremlin-affiliated Telegram channel ‘Fighterbomber’ confirmed that Russian Armed Forces had lost another elite helicopter crew with a lot of military decorations:

According to Ukrainian broadcaster Hromadske, the helicopter was equipped with an anti-tank missile system, a laser-guided cannon, and aerial bombs. It is reportedly worth $16 million.

The Ka-52 is supposedly one of the most formidable in the world, but Ukrainian forces have shown that Russian attack helicopters have a few structural deficiencies.

Russia has lost at least 27 Ka-52 Alligators since its unprovoked attack on Ukraine began on February 24, according to open-source intel tracker Oryx.

[sources:dailybeast&defenceblog]