Vitaliy Timkiv/AFP via Getty Images
- Wagner Group forces destroyed six Russian helicopters and a plane during its short rebellion, Ukraine says.
- It weakened Putin's air forces, though Russia is said to be attacking as before in Ukraine.
- Nonetheless, chaos like this gives Ukraine a "window of opportunity," a defense official said.
Wagner Group forces took out six Russian helicopters and another aircraft during Yevgeny Prigozin's short-lived rebellion, Ukrainian officials say, in a development that could hand them a defensive edge in the fighting in Ukraine.
Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat emphasized the benefit to Ukraine on Sunday, saying: "Mi-8 transport helicopters are powerful hardware that really helps the Russian army in its war against Ukraine," per The Kyiv Independent.
The exact specifications of the destroyed aircraft differ according to reports. Ihnat has said that Wagner took out two attack helicopters and four transport aircraft, while pro-Kremlin military bloggers were cited by the Kyiv Independent as saying three of them were electronic warfare helicopters.
Open-source weapons tracker site Oryx, whose helicopter tally matches that of the cited milbloggers, said it had documented evidence of the following Russian losses: a Mi-35 attack helicopter, a Ka-52 attack helicopter, three Mi-8 electronic warfare helicopters, one Mi-8 transport, and a 1 Il-22M airborne command post.
It also said that Prigozhin had captured a Russian MRAP patrol vehicle and a Tigr-M infantry mobility vehicle.
Oryx said that Prigozin had lost two trucks, two technical vehicles, and an infantry mobility vehicle to the Russian army proper.
After an astonishing 36 hours, which saw Prigozhin direct his militia into action on Russian soil and then make a rush towards Moscow, Russian leadership and the paramilitary boss reached a wary agreement which saw Prigozhin exiled to Belarus.
Hanna Malyar, Ukraine's deputy defense minister, told the Associated Press that "the enemy's weakness is always a window of opportunity, it allows us to take the advantage."
But it's too soon to see how the chaos between Wagner and the Russian military establishment will impact things on the ground, she said.
On Sunday, as the Wagner debacle unfolded in Russia, Ukrainian soldiers near Bakhmut told Agence France-Presse that it did not appear to have affected the situation there.
"As it attacked yesterday, Russia continued to attack today," a soldier identified only as Nazar told the outlet.
Nonetheless, the loss of six helicopters in a single weekend is significant.
In one year of defending against Russia, Ukraine had shot down around 30 of Russia's helicopters, Forbes reported in February.
At that time, Russia had around 300 helicopters — around half of them attack helicopters — based near its Western borders, the Kyiv Post reported.
As the recent chaos unfolded in Russia, Ukraine said it had managed to push forward in its counter-offensive. As of early Monday local time, Ukraine's military said it had advanced half a mile around the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, as The Guardian reported.
NATO's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday that Prigozhin's rebellion was evidence Putin had made a "big strategic mistake" in invading Ukraine last year, the outlet also reported.
from All Content from Business Insider https://www.businessinsider.com/wagner-prigozhin-took-down-7-russia-helicopters-plane-rebellion-ukraine-2023-6
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