Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov published a documentary about the most riskiest and complicated mission of the whole war in Ukraine - delivery of supplies, weapons and troops into besieged Mariupol via helicopters.
The helicopters took off from Ukrainian-controlled territory at 4-5 am in the dark, flew over it for 40 minutes, and then 40 minutes over the enemy - starting from Mileykino, the flight began over the sea.
The entire flight continued in extremely difficult conditions: in the dark at extremely low altitude - almost touching trees with landing gear. To somehow facilitate the flight at night, the pilots used Polish THL-5NV helmets with PNL-3 Orlik night vision goggles.
The plan was simple - volunteers and weapons were brought to Mariupol by helicopters and then the helicopters took back the seriously wounded. In total, 72 people decided to become volunteers and join the besieged troops - including 9 doctors.
The Ukrainian forces managed to carry out 4 such raids - in 3 cases they were completely successful, in one case the helicopters were shot down on the way back, whilst taking out the wounded.
There were also attempts to support Mariupol later than this- however, all the other times the helicopters were shot down before they even reached the city. How many helicopters were lost in total is not reported, but we think that about 4-5 losses are possible.
Here is the link to the full documentary which we really recommend watching to better understand one of the most intrepid operations of this war so far.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker

🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @UAWeapons

Jun 17
#Ukraine: A great documentary was recently released by @PopularFront_ covering the "Hoods Hoods Klan", a group of Ukrainian anti-fascist football hooligans who are fighting the Russian invasion. It can be viewed here:
We have been asked to cover some interesting aspects of the arms used by the group. In general, these are the same as other UA Units/Militias; AK variants, in particular the AK-74, AKS-74U, AKM & RPK are most common.
That being said, there are a few other weapons of interest.

For example, we can observe the US-donated FGM-148 Javelin ATGM in this shot - these have proven to be extremely effective on the battlefield.
Read 7 tweets
Jun 5
#Ukraine: Usually reliable Russian channels claim that this was a UA jet, providing this video. Whilst the footage does not prove the operator of the jet, this is certainly not a Su-25- rather a MiG-29 (Operated by UA), or Sukhoi (Variants of which are operated by both sides.)
According to our sources on the Ukrainian side, it can be stated with high confidence that it was a Ukrainian jet- but the type is unknown.

Whilst we cannot be totally sure either way, we seek to be as accurate as possible with our reporting.
Another video from the crash site - whilst it is relatively hard to identify the precise type, the wreckage is likely from the Su-27 family [Thanks, everybody!].
Both sides operate these jets.
Read 4 tweets
May 30
#Ukraine: Recently, video has appeared purporting to show FGM-148 Javelin from Ukraine on sale in Idlib, Syria. This is blatant disinfo.

Instead, we see SMAW-D & APILAS launchers. Both of these have been documented as captured by the Assad regime- there is 0 proof of UA origin.
The man also mentions "mines" (Actually ammo boxes) & rifles that are also claimed to be from Ukraine. The rifles are FN FAL & apparent M16A2. Again, easily sourced locally in Syria- but never seen in UA. It is worth a note that the APILAS has so far never been seen in UA either.
Of course, smuggling from UA to MENA is possible and has occurred in the past. However, this is an example of an obvious fake by the Russia and Syrian regime, where most of the weapons shown were not even donated to UA. The original source is highly suspicious- see screenshots.
Read 5 tweets
May 29
#Ukraine: We obtained a image of a mysterious VTOL UAV, said to be used by the Ukrainian army. Whilst the precise ID is a mystery, it has features that are very similar to the extremely rare PHOLOS loitering munition developed by Overwatch Aerospace 🇬🇧 & Ascent Aerosystems 🇺🇸.
Whilst the unit seen is not identical to previous display models of the PHOLOS VTOL UAS- it does have multiple payload options. It is also known that it is capable to loiter for 45 minutes and features an onboard electro-optical infra-red camera.
We note that the UK has already committed to providing loitering munitions to the Ukrainian side back in April, and there has been several instances of Ukrainian strikes that are hard to attribute to a specific system.
gov.uk/government/new…
Read 5 tweets
May 26
#Ukraine: UA forces reportedly hit RU-controlled Novovoskresenske, Kherson Oblast with 2 9M27K3 cluster MLRS rockets- each containing 312 infamous PFM-1S land mines. Whilst being very small they leave horrible injuries, though this time they should at least self-destruct in time. ImageImageImageImage
As we see, there is a bit of misunderstanding- we didn't state they were used against civilians- just landed there. We know that both sides possess such mines and we are thoroughly monitoring their use. So far the only reports with images are coming from the Russian side.
In this case we are using data from the Russian side- and the same approach would be applied to Ukrainian reports in similar cases on the opposite side of the conflict. The use of such munitions, especially close to populated areas, can be a serious issue for civilian safety.
Read 5 tweets
May 20
#Ukraine: Apparently, we were right in asserting that Ukraine is receiving Iranian weapons seized from the Houthis by the United States - here we see a pristine Iranian mortar in the hands of the Ukrainian army.
The mortar itself is very interesting - it very closely resembles an Iranian HM-15 81mm mortar but as the source claims uses 82mm mortar bombs. The name of this particular variant is also stated - HM-19.
We have not encountered such a designation anywhere before, but we believe these mortars are produced specially for Houthis in Yemen, where 82mm mortar bombs of Warsaw Pact are pretty common.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(