New blow for Putin as his air defense forces shoot down his own helicopter, killing 4 crew

VLADIMIR Putin suffered a further blow yesterday when his air defense forces shot down one of his own military helicopters.

The Russian Ka-29 was mistakenly targeted and shot down by a missile, according to pro-war channels.

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All four crew members were killed, reports state.

The £19 million helicopter was hunting Ukrainian maritime drones near the Black Sea resort of Anapa when it was hit by a Russian medium-range Pantsir missile.

The Ministry of Defense attributed the explosion to an error in the “friend or foe” identification system.

Helicopters are seen as the most effective way to attack Ukraine’s maritime drones – which devastated Putin’s naval assets during the war.

A total of 113 were launched in Russia on Thursday night.

Ukraine said its drones hit four oil refineries – three in the Krasnodar region and one in Astrakhan – with explosions reported at two other Russian oil depots.

Radar centers were also hit, along with a storage site for Iranian-supplied drones.