Photos of a Russian helicopter apparently shot down in Ukraine are causing discussion because one of the photos shows exactly this helicopter with the inscription “на Берлин”, in German: “To Berlin”. The photo is not manipulated, but how did this inscription get on the helicopter? And how current is the photo really? We address these questions here.

The photos of the crashed helicopter

These photos are very common and are most likely real. Here's an example:

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The widely circulated photo of the helicopter

The Ukrainian military also posted four photos on Facebook:

The photos appear to have been taken by Ukrainian soldiers who spotted the helicopter and posted online. The shootdown happened on March 5th . We especially have to pay attention to the tail of the helicopter, as there is a designation on it: RF-91165. This name will appear again soon!

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The name of the helicopter

Next to the designation RF-91165 are the words " ВKС РОССИИ ", which is the abbreviation for the Russian Aerospace Forces.
Important: Until August 1, 2015, the designation was “ ВBС РОССИИ “, an abbreviation for the Russian Air Force. We’ll get to why this is important in a moment!

The photo with the inscription

This photo is now widely shared along with photos of the crashed helicopter:

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The photo of the helicopter with the inscription “To Berlin”, source: Reddit

The license plate number can also be seen in the photo: RF-91165, which is the license plate number of the crashed helicopter. But there are two other interesting things in the photo: a credit and two words.

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Pay attention to the two words

As you can see in the screenshot above, it says “ ВBС РОССИИ “, i.e. the name that only existed until August 1, 2015!

This raises the question of how current the photo with the inscription “To Berlin” actually is, so let’s now look at the source given in the photo below:

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The source of the photo

Not only is the helicopter's license plate visible, but also the photo ID 213151 and the URL RussianPlanes.NET. We can start something with this and the photo can actually be found in an overview on the page :

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The helicopter on RussianPlanes.NET

According to the information on the site, the copyright for the photo belongs to Andrej Proskurin, who apparently took the photo in 2017 at the Pogonovo military training area. However, he may have already photographed it in 2015, which is evidenced not only by the old name “ВBС РОССИИ”, but also by the inscription “To Berlin”.

Why does the helicopter have the inscription “To Berlin” on it?

In 2015 it was reported that during exercises the Russian Baltic Sea Fleet apparently labeled their bombs “for fun” with pithy sayings from the Second World War, such as “For Stalin” and “To Berlin” (see HERE ). According to Sergei Sumlenny , an Eastern Europe expert who worked for 10 years in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, these inscriptions were not placed on Putin's orders, but simply because the Russian military and many other citizens thought it was "cool" (see HERE ).

Summary

  • The photo of the crashed helicopter is most likely current
  • The photo of the flying helicopter dates back to at least 2017, more likely 2015
  • The label “To Berlin” is rather tasteless, but at least in 2015 it was used on military equipment and was considered “cool”.
  • There is no indication that the helicopter still had this marking 6 to 8 years later

However, it can be said with certainty that the inscription “To Berlin” was on the helicopter at least in 2017, if not 2015, so it has no reference whatsoever to the Ukraine crisis or a (hoped for) attack on Germany.

Also interesting:
Tanks were yesterday, now it's about rockets. A photo is said to show a Ukrainian farmer pulling a Russian Soyuz rocket behind him with his tractor.
Ukrainian farmer did not steal a Russian Soyuz rocket


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )