Russia lost a helicopter and its crew over its own territory on the evening of 1 October. If the reports coming out of the Voronezh region are right, the missile or the shells that brought it down came from a Russian fighter.

According to Telegram channels covering the Russian military, a Su-35 crew mistook a Mi-8 helicopter for a Ukrainian drone during a large drone attack and opened fire. All three crew members on board, the pilot, the navigator and the onboard gunner, were reportedly killed.

It is a serious claim, and it needs a serious caveat. No Russian authority has confirmed the cause, and the friendly-fire account comes from Telegram channels rather than from any official record. Here is what is reported, by whom, and what remains unknown.

What the channels say

The loss itself was first reported by Fighterbomber, a Russian Telegram channel closely associated with the Russian Aerospace Forces, which did not spell out the cause. The friendly-fire version came from Dossier Shpiona, which said the Su-35 crew misidentified the helicopter as a hostile drone while repelling the attack, and from the Ukrainian channel Exilenova Plus.

According to The Insider, a third channel, Oko Hora, said the Mi-8 had been sitting on a pad and lifted off after a drone alert, presumably to get out of harm's way, before coming under fire from the fighter.

That comment does not confirm the cause. But it is hard to read it as anything other than a reference to misidentification.

Why a fighter could mistake a helicopter for a drone

Russian fighters are now routinely tasked with hunting Ukrainian long-range drones at night, often flying low and slow over their own territory among air defence batteries that are firing at the same targets. In that environment, a radar contact moving at helicopter speed near the ground looks a lot like a drone.

Identification friend or foe systems are meant to stop exactly this, but they only work if every aircraft is transmitting, every receiver is set up correctly and every crew trusts the answer. A helicopter scrambled at short notice during an alert is the kind of aircraft that can fall through the cracks.

Governor Alexander Gusev said 62 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over the Voronezh region that evening, which gives a sense of how crowded the sky was.

Not the first time

If confirmed, it would not be Russia's first friendly-fire loss of the war. The Insider notes a similar Mi-8 loss in the Rostov region in March 2026, and Russian forces have shot down their own aircraft on several earlier occasions.

The Mi-8 is the most widely built helicopter in history and the workhorse of Russian military aviation, used for transport, search and rescue and fire support. Losing one, and three trained aircrew, to a mistaken engagement would be a costly reminder that a modern air defence system can be as dangerous to its own side as to the enemy.

Until Moscow says otherwise, or wreckage photographs settle it, the cause remains a claim. The loss of the helicopter and its crew appears to be real.

Sources: The Insider, Kyiv Independent, United24 Media, Militarnyi, Ukrainska Pravda