Russian troops shoot down own Mi-8, killing three crew

Russian forces shot down one of their own Mi-8 military helicopters over the Voronezh region on Oct. 1, killing all three crew members, after a ground-based air defense crew mistook it for an enemy drone.

The helicopter came down in a field in the Anninsky district, about 80 km (50 miles) from the city of Voronezh and roughly 200 km (125 miles) from the Ukrainian border. The crew of three, a pilot, a navigator and a gunner, were killed, Russian Telegram channel Mash reported on the evening of the crash.

The Mi-8 is the Soviet-designed twin-engine transport helicopter that forms the backbone of Russia’s military rotary-wing fleet. Armed versions carry rockets and machine guns and are used for troop transport, resupply, medical evacuation and, increasingly, for hunting Ukrainian long-range drones at low altitude.

Russian officials have not publicly acknowledged that the helicopter was downed by friendly fire. Several Russian military bloggers have hinted at the cause without stating it directly.

Ilya Tumanov, who runs the Fighterbomber Telegram channel and is known for his ties to Russian military aviation, wrote about the crash:

“The cause is a classic one, which humanity is unlikely ever to defeat, despite AI, robots, neural networks, ‘friend or foe’ and other wonders of science and technology,” wrote Ilya Tumanov.

The shootdown is the latest in a series of friendly fire losses involving Russian helicopters, many of them during Ukrainian drone raids, when air defense units, mobile fire groups and helicopter crews operate in the same airspace at night.

On July 2, a Ka-52 attack helicopter crashed in the same Voronezh region. Russian military blogger Vladimir Romanov said it was hit by a Verba shoulder-fired missile fired by a mobile fire group from Russia’s BARS reserve units, according to The Insider. One crew member was killed.

On March 3, Russian forces likely shot down one of their own helicopters near Millerovo in the Rostov region during a Ukrainian drone attack, The Defence Blog reported, after pro-government Russian sources said air defenses had mistaken it for a drone.

In June 2024, air defenses near Anapa shot down a Russian Ka-29 helicopter, killing all four people on board. By late 2025, The Insider counted at least 17 Russian aircraft lost to friendly fire since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has leaned on helicopters to chase Ukrainian drones flying deep into its territory, sending them out at night alongside ground-based guns, short-range missile systems and mobile teams armed with machine guns and shoulder-fired missiles. Those mobile teams often have limited means to tell a low-flying helicopter from a drone in the dark.

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