Wagner Group shot down 6 Russian helicopters and a plane during its mini rebellion, Ukraine says, weakening Putin's air force at a time when it could prove critical

• Wagner forces destroyed six Russian helicopters and a plane amid its short rebellion, Ukraine says.
• It weakened Putin's air forces, though Russia is said to be attacking as before in Ukraine.

Wagner Group forces took out six Russian helicopters and another aircraft during Yevgeny Prigozhin's short-lived rebellion, Ukrainian officials said Sunday, in a development that could hand Ukraine a defensive edge in the fighting.

According to The Kyiv Independent, Yurii Ihnat, a Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson, emphasized the benefit to Ukraine, saying: "Mi-8 transport helicopters are powerful hardware that really helps the Russian army in its war against Ukraine."

Reports differ on the exact specifications of the destroyed aircraft. Ihnat has said that Wagner took out two attack helicopters and four transport aircraft, while pro-Kremlin military bloggers were cited by The Kyiv Independent as saying three of them were electronic-warfare helicopters.

The open-source weapons tracker site Oryx, whose helicopter tally matches that of the cited military bloggers, said it had documented evidence of the following Russian losses: a Mi-35 attack helicopter, a Ka-52 attack helicopter, three Mi-8 electronic-warfare helicopters, one Mi-8 transport, and an Il-22M airborne command post.

It added that Prigozhin had captured a Russian MRAP patrol vehicle and a Tigr-M infantry mobility vehicle.

Oryx said that Prigozhin had lost two trucks, two technical vehicles, and an infantry mobility vehicle to the Russian army proper.

After an astonishing 36 hours, which saw Prigozhin direct his militia into action on Russian soil and then make a rush toward Moscow, Russian leadership and the paramilitary boss reached a wary agreement in which Prigozhin was exiled to Belarus.

Hanna Malyar, Ukraine's deputy defense minister, told The Associated Press: "The enemy's weakness is always a window of opportunity. It allows us to take the advantage."

It's too soon to see how the chaos between Wagner and the Russian military establishment will affect things on the ground, she said.

On Sunday, as the Wagner debacle unfolded in Russia, Ukrainian soldiers near Bakhmut told Agence France-Presse that it did not appear to have affected the situation there.

"As it attacked yesterday, Russia continued to attack today," a soldier identified only as Nazar told the outlet.

Nonetheless, the loss of six helicopters in a single weekend is significant.

In one year of defending against Russia, Ukraine had shot down about 30 of Russia's helicopters, Forbes reported in February.

At that time, Russia had about 300 helicopters — around half of them attack helicopters — based near its western borders, The Kyiv Post reported.

As the recent chaos unfolded in Russia, Ukraine said it had managed to push forward in its counteroffensive. As of early Monday local time, Ukraine's military said it had advanced half a mile around the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, The Guardian reported.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that Prigozhin's rebellion was evidence Putin had made a "big strategic mistake" in invading Ukraine last year, the outlet added.