Vladimir Putin’s forces have been humiliated once again after yet another friendly fire incident involving one of its aircraft.
According to reports, one of Russia’s air defence forces accidentally shot down one of its own Ka-29 helicopters near Ukraine. The incident, which caused the deaths of all four crew members, has been blamed on a fault in the friend or foe identification system.
The crash saw Russia lose another of its £19m Ka-29 assault helicopters. On this occasion, the aircraft was hunting one Ukraine’s kamikaze naval drones when it was struck by a Russian Pantsir surface-to-air missile.
The Mirror reported that the incident came as Russia attempted to defend itself from an attack by 113 sea drones launched earlier this week by the Ukrainian military.
This isn’t the first time Russia has destroyed one of its own helicopters by accident. In April, Putin was reportedly left furious when a Ka-27 helicopter was shot down in Crimea.
The destruction of the £6m aerial asset was confirmed by Dmytro Pletenchuk in a Facebook post.
Mr Pletenchuk confirmed: “Minus one Russian Ka-27 in Crimea. It was on a search mission. And it found something.” Witnesses of the crash said they heard a rocket launch in Sevastopol on April 10 which was followed by a muffled explosion.
Later, the Helicopterpilot Telegram channel claimed the helicopter had been downed by friendly fire.
As well as attacking their own helicopters, Russian soldiers have also reportedly been bombing their own villages. Last month, it was revealed that their troops had attacked their own towns on at least 39 occasions since the beginning of the war.
Independent outlet The Insider found that Russian munitions had struck the Belgorod region nearly 40 times since the start of Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine.
The attacks have featured a range of armaments including Kh-59 missiles and aerial bombs. In April, Russia was forced to admit that one of its Su-34 jets had dropped bombs on the city of Belgorod.
On this occasion, the incident was described as an “accidental discharge of aviation ammunition”, one which injured five people and destroyed 30 buildings.