Overview
- Ukrainian operators told El Pais a roughly €700 artisanal FPV drone struck a Russian Mi‑8 near Pokrovsk on September 29, destroying the helicopter valued at about €6 million.
- Video from Ukrainian surveillance drones circulated within the military, and the participants said President Volodymyr Zelensky sent congratulations.
- Battalion commander Maxim said three or four Russian soldiers aboard the Mi‑8 were killed, and French outlets noted this as the first documented Mi‑8 loss to an improvised drone.
- On October 22, Russian drone and missile attacks hit multiple Ukrainian regions, with officials reporting at least two people killed in Kyiv and broader strikes damaging energy infrastructure and prompting emergency power cuts.
- In Russia’s Chelyabinsk region, a massive explosion at a Kopeysk explosives plant left 10 dead and 12 missing, the governor said, with a criminal investigation opened and authorities not attributing the blast to a drone attack.