PROFILE: The Ukrainian Mi-24V and Its 185 Victory Marks—A Living Legend of the Skies

A Technical Integration That Defies Categorization

The addition of M134 Minigun machine guns—a U.S.-made six-barrel rotary weapon capable of firing up to 6,000 rounds per minute—to a Soviet-designed helicopter represents much more than a simple technical modification. It is a symbol of the alliance between the West and Ukraine, embodied in metal and mechanics. Ukrainian armament manufacturers designed the adapters, integrated the electrical systems, and synchronized the targeting systems within a timeframe that no conventional weapons program could ever have met.

This East-West hybridization illustrates a reality that Putin’s Russia struggles to acknowledge: Ukraine is not fighting alone. Behind every American machine gun mounted on a Czech helicopter piloted by a Ukrainian lies an international supply chain—a concrete solidarity that goes beyond mere rhetoric. The West is supporting Ukraine with its weapons, and this Mi-24V proves it with every mission, every burst of fire, and every additional mark painted on the fuselage.

The Strategic Value of Hybrid Weapons in Total War

In a war where resources are scarce and delivery times mean the difference between life and death, the ability to combine equipment from different sources constitutes a major operational advantage. Ukraine has demonstrated remarkable expertise in integrating Western weapons systems onto Soviet-era platforms. Dutch F-16s armed with AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles, Leopard 2 tanks coordinated with reconnaissance drones—the list of Ukrainian technical achievements is long and impressive.

The Mi-24V of the “Kherson” Brigade, equipped with American Miniguns, is part of this hybrid power strategy. Each successful adaptation acts as a force multiplier for armies that lack Russia’s raw industrial capacity but possess something Moscow can neither buy nor copy: ingenuity born of absolute necessity and motivation forged by love for a country they are defending for real, not on the orders of a tsar.

Russia mass-produces its weapons on assembly lines fueled by coercion and equipment imported from North Korea. Ukraine, on the other hand, mounts American Miniguns on Czech helicopters with resourcefulness and military precision. I know without a doubt which side of history I want to be on.

The History of Survival Etched into Aluminum

In the great wars of the past, flying aces inscribed their victories on the fuselage of their aircraft. It was a tradition, a form of collective memory etched into aluminum. The 185 marks on this Mi-24V are part of this long military tradition, but with an additional and urgent dimension: they bear witness to a total, industrial war, where every target destroyed potentially represents Ukrainian civilians and soldiers saved from certain death.

Open-source analysts, who scrutinize images posted on social media and Ukrainian military Telegram channels, have gradually pieced together this aircraft’s kill count. Defense Express, one of the most reliable sources on Ukrainian military equipment, confirmed the figures in a detailed report dated June 30, 2026. This is not war propaganda—it is rigorous documentation.

A record documented in the OSINT archives of the conflict

According to Defense Express and publicly available image analyses, this helicopter is believed to be one of the most effective Mi-24Vs documented throughout the entire Ukraine-Russia conflict since February 24, 2022. What makes this record particularly significant is that it is based on verifiable visual evidence—images and videos authenticated by independent analysts, not uncorroborated official statements or propaganda releases.

In a conflict where disinformation is a weapon in itself, the rigor of OSINT documentation becomes a valuable resource for the truth. Every mark on this fuselage has been scrutinized, analyzed, challenged, or confirmed by analysts. The 78 drones shot down have been visually verified. The exact nature of the 107 additional marks remains to be determined, but there is no serious doubt about their documented existence.

I don’t claim to know everything about what these 107 unidentified markings represent. Perhaps they indicate strike missions; perhaps something else. What I do know is that every marking on this helicopter corresponds to a day when Ukrainian soldiers and civilians survived thanks to this air support. That alone is reason enough for the whole world to take notice.

Hunting Shaheds in the Ukrainian Night Sky

The drone war in Ukraine has turned the nights into a constant and merciless aerial battlefield. Russian Shahed-136s—Iranian-made kamikaze drones rebranded as Geran-2s—arrive in nightly waves, flying at low altitude, seeking to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses and strike civilian infrastructure. Shooting down 78 of these drones with a single helicopter represents an extraordinary tactical and physical challenge that few air forces in the world could match.

Flying at night at low altitude to intercept fast drones requires technical mastery and mental endurance that few crews can sustain over the course of a long war. Ukrainian pilots often operate without a decisive technological advantage over Russian systems, compensating with their intimate knowledge of the terrain, their calculated daring, and close coordination with ground-based radar detection systems. They make do with what they have. They win because of who they are.

The invisible human cost behind the 185 documented missions

Each mark on the fuselage of this Mi-24V represents a mission accomplished, but also a mortal risk consciously accepted. Ukrainian crews—pilots and flight officers—return to combat after every mission, knowing that Russia has anti-aircraft systems capable of shooting down their aircraft at any moment. Fatigue builds inexorably, post-traumatic stress sets in, but the missions continue because the alternative—defeat—is unacceptable to people who love their country.

We do not know the names of these aviators from the “Kherson” brigade. We do not know their faces or their personal stories. We see only their victories etched into the aluminum of their helicopters. Sometimes that is all that war leaves us to bear witness to the everyday heroism of those fighting to ensure Ukraine survives and Putin loses. Not out of some abstract ideology—but out of vital necessity.

I wonder if the Western decision-makers who are still hesitating to send weapons to Ukraine have thought about these pilots. These men and women who fly in modified Soviet helicopters, night after night, to protect civilians whom Putin wants to wipe off the map. Every delay in the delivery of weapons puts their lives at risk. It is a moral responsibility that cannot be ignored.

The Mi-24, Designed to Dominate, Repurposed to Liberate

There is a powerful irony in the fact that the Mi-24Vs—helicopters designed by the Soviet Union to project Russian military power—have become one of the most effective weapons in Ukraine’s defense against Russia, the successor to that very regime. Military history is full of similar reversals, but rarely with such symbolic and moral weight. These machines have switched sides. They now defend what the USSR sought to crush.

These helicopters were designed to intimidate neighboring countries, to project Moscow’s power, and to discourage any hint of independence. Soviet engineers in the 1970s could not have imagined that their machines would one day be used to defend a sovereign Ukraine against the ideological heirs of the regime that had created them. War rewrites the history of weapons just as much as the history of people and nations.

Toward Modernization—The Gripen on the Horizon

This heroic Mi-24V is operating against the backdrop of a gradual and ambitious modernization of the Ukrainian Air Force. On June 30, 2026, Ukraine signed an agreement with Sweden to acquire 16 Gripen E fighters, in addition to the 16 Gripen C/D aircraft expected in early 2027. This gradual transition to modern Western platforms will transform Ukraine’s air capabilities in the medium term, providing the Ukrainian Air Force with unprecedented strike power and technological sophistication.

But while these contracts are being signed and deliveries are being arranged through diplomatic channels, it is aging Mi-24V helicopters—modified with American Miniguns and piloted by exhausted airmen—that are defending Ukrainian airspace today, right now, tonight. The Soviet legacy is safeguarding Ukrainian freedom while the West works to fulfill all of its promises within the announced timelines.

The Gripens will arrive. The F-16s are already here, though still in insufficient numbers. But in the meantime, Ukrainian pilots are flying helicopters that were as old as their fathers when the war began. That is the reality of “military aid currently being deployed.” War, however, does not wait for contractual delivery deadlines.

A Systematic Campaign Against Russian Air Defense

This Mi-24V’s kill count is part of a broader military context documented by Euromaidanpress: since January 1, 2026, the Ukrainian drone force has destroyed nearly 200 Russian air defense systems, including 31 in June 2026 alone. A Pantsir system and two radars in occupied Crimea were added to the list during an operation in late June. This systematic pressure on Russian air defense capabilities creates operational windows for aircraft such as this Mi-24V.

The destruction of Russian air defense systems is not merely a tactical military objective—it is a comprehensive strategy to progressively and methodically weaken the Russian military’s ability to protect its own territory and supply lines. Every Pantsir destroyed, every radar system taken out, and every S-300 silenced represents an additional opening for Ukrainian missions deep into Russian territory.

A Summary of Ukrainian Air Victories in 2026

On the night of June 29–30, 2026, the Ukrainian Air Force shot down 138 of the 154 drones launched by Russia. These figures, reported by the Kyiv Independent, illustrate the growing effectiveness of Ukraine’s air defense against Russian saturation attacks. Aircraft such as this Mi-24V contribute directly to this interception rate by providing an additional, mobile, and flexible layer of defense in areas where ground-to-air systems cannot always intervene.

In total, the Russian attacks on June 30, 2026, killed 13 people and wounded 109 others across several Ukrainian oblasts, including Dnipropetrovsk (6 dead), Kharkiv (4 dead), and Zaporizhzhia (3 dead). These figures serve as a stark reminder of why aircraft like this Mi-24V and its heroic pilots never cease their missions: because every drone that is not shot down can kill innocent civilians.

Concrete Military Aid as a Universal Language

The 185 markings on this Mi-24V also tell a diplomatic story. Every drone shot down over Ukraine represents a powerful bargaining chip in negotiations between Kyiv and its Western allies. Ukraine is not asking for charity—it is demonstrating, mission after mission, that it uses the supplied weapons with exemplary efficiency, which deserves to be rewarded with faster and more generous deliveries.

On June 30, 2026, at a meeting of the five major European powers in Berlin—Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Poland—leaders signed a declaration on strengthening NATO’s European pillar. These high-level political decisions have a direct impact in the cockpit of an Mi-24V: more weapons, ammunition, spare parts, and training. Politics wages war. War validates politics.

What Ukraine Expects from the West in Return

Ukraine isn’t asking for Western soldiers to fight in its place. It’s asking for the tools to fight on its own—and with these 185 marks, it’s proving that it knows what to do with those tools. Every helicopter delivered, every missile provided, every air defense system transferred represents an investment in an army that uses them better than anyone could have hoped in 2022.

The NATO summit in Ankara on July 7–8, 2026, will be a decisive moment in either confirming or dashing these legitimate expectations. Zelensky will be there to deliver the message that Ukraine has been conveying for four years in the air, on land, and at sea: give us the weapons, and we’ll do the rest. This Mi-24V covered in markings is the most compelling argument he can bring in his diplomatic briefcase.

When Zelensky sets down his briefcase in Ankara, he should have in hand the photo of this Mi-24V and its 185 battle marks. No speech needed. No complicated arguments. Just a machine worn down to the bone by pilots who have decided to win. That is all the West needs to see to understand what it is actually funding.

185 marks, 185 indisputable reasons to keep going

The Mi-24V of the “Kherson” Brigade and its 185 victory marks will remain in the annals of this war as one of the most striking and human symbols of Ukrainian resistance. Not a speech, not a press conference, not a diplomatic statement—just painted metal bearing the scars of a war that Ukraine refuses to lose, worn proudly like medals earned amid darkness and fear.

This helicopter will continue to fly, shoot down drones, and accumulate marks until its fuselage can bear no more. And when this war is over—because it will end, with a Ukrainian victory—this aircraft will deserve a place in a museum, not as a military curiosity, but as a living monument to those who fought with what they had, for what they loved, without ever ceasing to believe in victory.

What This Portrait Tells Us About the Ukrainian Spirit

A military portrait is never just the story of a machine. It is the story of the men and women who fly it, who repair it, who board it knowing they may not return. The Mi-24V of the “Kherson” Brigade is the collective portrait of a Ukraine that is fighting with an intensity that Vladimir Putin did not anticipate on February 24, 2022—and that the entire world should admire and support without reservation or delay.

Ukraine is holding on. Not because it’s waiting to be saved by hesitant allies. But because its pilots, soldiers, and civilians have collectively decided that their country, their language, their culture, and their freedom are worth every risk, every sacrifice, every night spent hunting down Shaheds in a hostile sky with a fifty-year-old machine. 185 kills. And the count is still rising.

This Mi-24V is more than a combat helicopter. It’s a statement. Each mark says the same thing: we’re still here, we’re holding out, we’re winning one drone at a time. Faced with Putin, who was counting on a victory in three days, this fuselage covered in victories is the most eloquent response there could be.

By Maxime Marquette, columnist