Taras Chmut, head of the Come Back Alive Foundation, published on Twitter, a photo of a Mi-17 helicopter in flight over a Ukrainian forest. This is one of the Mi-17s that Ukraine previously received from the United States.
Американські транспортні вертольоти Мі-17 вже доозбоються та стають транспортно-бойовими Україна швидко опановує західну техніку та зброю, не без проблем, звісно, але все ж швидко. Американські вертольоти значно краще вітчизняних Мі-8МСБ-В, які невдало себе проявили( pic.twitter.com/3zNnGL67j8
— Т (@TarasChmut) June 26, 2022
Ukrainian specialists equipped the Mi-17 with launchers for unguided aircraft missiles. Thanks to this, the helicopter has turned from a transport helicopter into a transport-attack one and can now strike at the positions of Russian troops.
Taras Chmut noted that the Mi-17s proved to be better than the Mi-8MSB-V, the Ukrainian version of the modernization of the Soviet Mi-8 multipurpose helicopter, developed by Motor Sich. What exactly is not specified, but one of the obvious advantages is that the Afghan Mi-17s are new.
Mi-17 at the Davis–Monthan US Air Force Base in Arizona, before being sent to Ukraine
The Mi-17 is an export version of the Mi-8 helicopter manufactured by the Kazan Helicopter Plant, a subsidiary of the "Russian Helicopters" holding. Initially, the Mi-17s were purchased by the United States to help the Afghan military.
In August 2021, American troops left Afghanistan, the Taliban seized power in the country, and the Afghan army ceased to exist. The helicopters were stored at an air base in the United States, but after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, they were redistributed to Ukraine.
Ukraine received the first five Afghan Mi-17s from the US in May 2022. In total, the United States promised to transfer twenty Mi-17 helicopters. Several more Mi-8 and Mi-17 aircraft are being transferred to European countries, in particular Slovakia.
