Ukraine Helicopters Attack Russian Oil Depot !

[Arrow 83]

This news very much gave me a WTF moment. How does 2 Ukrainian Helos (claimed to be Ukrainian Mi-24s) striking a Russian fuel depot more than 17 nm from the border even happen? The Russian city of Belogorod where the attack occurred, is less than 40 nm from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv where a major Russian offensive is under way. How does Russia not have the air cover and ground-to-air defenses to deal with this? There's enough of a pessimist in me to doubt they were actually Ukrainian Hinds but instead Russian helos in some military espionage op to derail peace talks. If so though, destroying your own oil depot is one heck of an extreme covert op!  I'm thinking his is probably more legit than fake. I'm curious what others think?

Note to the forum Mods; I wasn't sure where to post this (this forum, Military Aviation or The Arena.) If this isn't the appropriate forum, please move my post.

[+whiteknight06604 934]

it probably was Russians faking an attack to justify whatever crap they have planned .

[osmanfirat 10]

2 minutes ago, whiteknight06604 said:

it probably was Russians faking an attack to justify whatever crap they have planned .

They are literally invading Ukraine. I don't think they have anything crappier planned to justify.

[madvad 654]

If they are Ukranians, its amazing how they achieved this.
If they are russians doing a false flag op, well, I´m not surprised.

[macelena 1,070]

It is only the fact that the Ukranians haven't acknowledged it that could spell any doubt in my opinion. It does seem too surgical to be a false flag, hitting an actually relevant target without, reportedly, killing anybody, as compared to, say, a ballistic missile hitting a population center.

I have the feeling those might have even been Russian Hinds going rogue, either on their own accord or some pretty ballsy commander trying to hinder their own advance to avoid or delay further carnage for some reason. It wouldn't be the first reported case of Russians sabotaging themselves or going red on red to avoid combat. Still, pretty weird, it would be awesome if the Ukranians had turned the tables that much, but if it is the own Russian military turning around, that would be even better. 

[bazillius 1,259]

C'mon guys. This is the congratulation of the Russians on April Fool's Day from Ukraine.  It's just not even something to talk about

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools'_Day

[+allenjb42 4,234]

Is it the Ukrainian equivalent of the Doolittle Raid?

[+Gepard 11,323]

The ukrainian Hind pilots are combat proven. They have learned the job on the hard way in Donbas since 8 years. So they found out, that you must fly very low to avoid Manpads. And very low means 2 meters over ground. Guys who can fly a heli fast at this altitute must have great skills and big balls. And i think the Ukrainians have such pilots. The Mi-24 is for such an attack run a perfect helicopter. It is fast and has an armament which allows to open the fire outside the close air defence of the opponent.

I think it is possible, that the Ukrainians had flown this strike. And it was an outstanding job.

[+Erik 1,812]

If this was Russia conducting a false flag operation in justification of a future escalation, then Russia is a joke. You strike something like an empty school, stage it with dead children, then invite the media in to document it. You don't strike your own critical infrastructure that's supplying fuel to the front lines. That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard. Ukraine is striking out and putting Russia on the defensive which is the only way this is going to end sooner than later. Ukraine should continue their offensive strikes on Russia's porous southern border. Russia is exposed and unfocused, so Ukraine won't have a better chance of striking out than this. In addition to a porous border Russia also has four horribly led fronts with nothing protecting its flanks or supply chains. Sadly, this invasion is nothing more than an absurd Slav on Slav genocide. The world weeps. 

[Righteous26 70]

The US Army and USAF did something like this to open Operation Desert Storm in 1991 in Operation Normandy. Several Army AH-64As guided by a USAF MH-53 PAVE Low attacked an Iraqi EW radar site and made a large hole in their EW radar coverage through which the first coalition attack aircraft flew to strike targets in Iraq. The mission pretty much made then LTC Richard Cody's career.

The US Army tried this again on 24 March 2003 and attacked an Iraqi tank brigade that was in a marshaling yard. This turned into a disaster when the AH-64Ds flew through a 40km long flak trap set by the Iraqis in an area that turned out to be their equivalent of the National Training Center and an AAA school. The tanks were bait. The US Army lost one AH-64D outright and had two battalions (6/6 Cav and 1-227th AVN) put out of the rest of the war because they were so badly damaged. In fact, some of the 1-227 aircraft were transferred to 2/6 Cav later in 2003 and still had bullets in the airframes.