On September 5, a Ukrainian man named Viktor Vishivetsky shared a video on Facebook showing a helicopter flying over what appears to be a village. Vishivetsky also published three photographs of the situation. Within a week, a Ukrainian military news site managed to identify this helicopter and geolocate the video — a Russian Ka-52 attack helicopter flying over the Ukrainian village of Pavlivka, in the Kherson Oblast.

If, in fact, the helicopter belonged to the Russia Federation, it would be in direct violation of the Minsk accords. We investigated.

(Source: Facebook / Archive)

(Source: Facebook / Archive)

(Source: Facebook / Archive)

(Source: Facebook / Archive)

What type of helicopter?

The helicopter’s model is difficult to discern from the video and photographs alone, but Ukrainians quickly identified it as the Kamov Ka-52 “Alligator” (NATO reporting name Hokum-B) — a Russian attack helicopter manufactured after the fall of the Soviet Union, and never exported to Ukraine.

A composite image showing the helicopter in the video and photographs over time shows that it has coaxial rotors, matching the Ka-52.