Watch: Ukrainian saboteurs destroy two Ka-52 helicopters at Russian air base

Ukrainian saboteurs filmed themselves planting explosives on Russian attack helicopters in an audacious clandestine raid on an air base 500 miles from the Ukrainian border.

Two Russian Ka-52 attack helicopters were completely destroyed and another two were badly damaged in the attack at the Veretye air force base in the Pskov region on Monday, the military intelligence department of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry said.

As with many other suspected Ukrainian attacks, Kyiv’s military intelligence agency stopped short of claiming responsibility.

The editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian news website Obozrevatel on Tuesday published a video purporting to show the raid, showing a masked operative on the tarmac at the air base.

Dressed in camouflage clothes and black gloves, an unidentified man can be seen assembling explosive devices on the ground before walking past several helicopters and planting the bomb under the wing of one of them.

Russian media outlets reported the explosions at the airfield, which lies just 15 miles from the border with Latvia, on Monday, but Russia’s Defence Ministry is yet to comment.

The Telegram news service Baza, which has links to Russian security services, quotes an unnamed Russian officer as saying that the explosion “was so powerful that the aircraft’s debris was scattered around 200 metres away”.

Baza on Tuesday reported that Russian military personnel discovered another improvised explosive device equivalent to 400g of TNT attached to the body of one of the helicopters.

In an apparent effort to downplay the attack, Baza reported that the helicopters were undergoing repairs.

Previous suspected Ukrainian acts of sabotage hit targets in Russia-occupied Crimea or in southern Russia - all relatively close to the border.

But the Pskov region of North-Western Russia lies hundreds of miles from Ukrainian territory.

The region experienced an influx of Ukrainian refugees this summer, many of whom crossed into neighbouring Estonia and Latvia having been forcibly deported from Ukraine by Russian forces.

The daring attack would mark the farthest point into Russian territory that Ukrainian saboteurs have operated so far.

Ukrainian special forces or saboteurs have been blamed for several attacks on air bases since the war began.

In August, at least nine warplanes were destroyed or damaged in an attack on the Saky air base in Crimea, more than 110 miles behind the front lines.

An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky later suggested that partisans operating behind Russian lines might have been responsible.

Days later, plumes of black smoke were seen rising from another Russian air base near the town of Gvardeyskoye, in central Crimea, after a series of explosions.

Security at the Veretye base has apparently been lax for years.

In 2019, a Russian photographer managed to enter the airfield unhindered and take photos of Ka-52s and other aircraft in broad daylight. His photographs from that trip showed dozens of snow-covered helicopters parked on the tarmac.

An unnamed official in the Pskov region on Tuesday told Radio Free Europe that the airfield was poorly guarded and easy to access.

“It’s fairly easy to get into that military unit,” the official said. “There is zero security. You can get to any of the nearby villages and walk to the runway.”

One of the helicopters was reportedly there for repairs after it was damaged during a mission in Ukraine.

Nicknamed the Alligator, the two-seat Ka-52 attack helicopter is one of Russia’s most advanced weapons and has been in service for just a decade.

Capable of carrying anti-tank missiles, each helicopter has a price tag of about £12 million.

Before the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Russia is believed to have had about 90 Ka-52 helicopters in service.

But its fleet has suffered a high attrition rate over more than eight months of war, and, according to Britain’s Ministry of Defence, Russia has now lost at least 23 Ka-52 helicopters.