Ukraine’s Suicide Helicopter Missions… Why?
Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) has conducted two high-risk air assault operations using US-supplied UH-60A Black Hawk helicopters in the Pokrovsk sector of Donetsk Oblast amid intense Russian advances. Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub, has been under siege for over a year, with Russian forces controlling ~80% of the city by late October 2025 and have now encircled the Ukrainian forces that remain in the area. The missions, overseen by GUR chief Kyrylo Budanov, tried, and failed, to insert elite special forces into contested or Russian-claimed areas. The key question is why?
Ukrainian sources claim the feckless operation was to disrupt enemy positions, clear strongpoints, and restore supply lines, but this is nonsensical. The first mission, which was launched the night of 28 October, dropped 11 GUR commandos in an open field northwest of Pokrovsk’s industrial zone. Video showed troops disembarking and fanning out rapidly. Insertion was at night/low visibility to minimize detection, but Russian reconnaissance drones spotted the low-flying helicopter and destroyed the 11 commandos.
The subsequent mission, which was launched on the night of 30 October using two Blackhawk helicopters, inserted two groups (total ~20–24 troops) in the same general area and they suffered the same fate as the first group.
To understand the purpose of these two failed missions you need to understand the relationship between the GUR and the CIA. Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR, or HUR in Ukrainian), the military intelligence agency under the Ministry of Defense, has developed one of the closest partnerships with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) among any foreign service. This relationship, forged in secrecy after the 2014 Maidan Revolution and Russia’s annexation of Crimea, reportedly transformed the GUR from a Soviet-era remnant infiltrated by Russian agents into a sophisticated operator renowned for audacious strikes against Moscow. The CIA invested tens of millions of dollars in rebuilding the GUR, providing training, equipment, and secure facilities, while sharing intelligence that proved critical during Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. Former U.S. officials describe it as a “historic opportunity” to counter Russia, with the GUR becoming “our little baby.”
While the Western media reports claim that this operation was supported by NATO, I think the more likely explanation is that this was a joint-CIA-GUR operation to extract CIA paramilitary officers who were operating with Ukrainian forces in and around Pokrovsk. I don’t think we are talking about junior CIA personnel… I think there are at least a couple, if not more, senior CIA paramilitary officers who are now trapped in Pokrovsk. Given that Western reports emphasize that these two failed missions were carried out at the direction of Budanov, the Chief of the GUR, and that Budanov works with the CIA rather than the US military or NATO, this has all the trappings of a CIA op.
Attempting an extraction twice in three days is but another indicator of the desperate situation confronting the Ukrainian forces and their Western advisors in Pokrovsk.
https://sonar21.com/ukraines-suicide-helicopter-missions-why/