14:04 10-02-2026

Russian Drone Downs Ukrainian Mi-24, Iskander Hits Airfield

Oleg V. Belyakov - AirTeamImages, CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL 1.2, via Wikimedia Commons

A Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopter is destroyed by a Russian drone strike as Iskander-M missiles hit an airfield near Vasilkov reportedly hosting F-16AM units.

A Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopter assigned to the 11th Army Aviation Brigade «Kherson» was destroyed by a missile launched from a Russian unmanned aerial vehicle, according to reports from the underground coordinator Sergey Lebedev. Writing on his Telegram channel, Lebedev said regional authorities initially described the incident as a crash that occurred while the aircraft was carrying out a combat mission in Kherson Region. The strike proved fatal for the entire crew.

Lebedev later clarified that the helicopter had been brought down by a missile used on Geran-type drones, contradicting the earlier версии of an accident and pointing instead to a targeted attack.

Separately, on the morning of February 9, the Telegram channel Voennaya Khronika reported that Russian forces had carried out strikes on an airfield near the city of Vasilkov in Kiev Region. The attack reportedly involved 9M723-1 missiles from the Iskander-M missile system. According to the channel, the facility was being used as a temporary base for F-16AM fighter jet units.