Ukrainian Defense Forces Destroy Mi-8 and Mi-24 Helicopters at Simferopol Airport

During an attack on Simferopol Airport, the Ukrainian Defense Forces destroyed Mi-8 and Mi-24 attack helicopters.

The damage to the aircraft is confirmed by satellite images that the AviaVector community published.

According to the satellite images, two helicopters were destroyed on the airport grounds where an explosion occurred on August 30, 2025, and thick black smoke was seen, as a result of a drone attack carried out by the Defense Forces of Ukraine.

The attack on the airfield took place on August 30 around 06:30 a.m., when Russian monitoring services started reporting drone activity heading toward Simferopol.

Meanwhile, according to an image from August 22, it can be noted that at that time the Russians had concentrated 5 Mi-8 helicopters, one An-26, three Mi-24 helicopters, and one Tu-134UBL on a relatively small area, which in the event of a massive attack could have resulted in significantly greater losses.

It should be noted that initially, after the explosion on the airport grounds, there were reports of damage to aviation fuel tanks; however, this information proved to be false.

As of today, Mi-8 helicopters are actively used by the Russian Armed Forces and remain the main transport helicopter of the military, serving in large numbers.

The exact modification of the destroyed helicopter is currently unknown. Despite this, the Mi-8 is used by the Russians for various tasks – from transporting personnel to carrying out strike operations, performing air defense duties, and hunting Ukrainian surface drones.

However, the effectiveness of such interceptions is low. For example, on December 31, 2024, the Ukrainian Defense Forces became the first in the world to destroy an aerial target with a missile launched from a sea drone.

The targets were two Mi-8 helicopters, which were shot down using R-73 air-to-air missiles.

Meanwhile, Mi-24 helicopters are currently used less actively due to the availability of their logical replacements in the form of the Ka-52 and Mi-28. As a result, the tasks of the Mi-24 mostly consist of attempts to defend against Ukrainian aerial and surface drones.

Militarnyi previously reported that as a result of a special operation by the Security Service of Ukraine at the Kirovske military air base in Crimea, a Russian Pantsir-S1 surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery system and three helicopters were destroyed.