[1] In addition to its most common role as a transport helicopter, the Mi-8 is also used as an airborne command post, armed gunship, and reconnaissance platform.

As of 2015, when combined with the related Mil Mi-17, the two helicopters are the third most common operational military aircraft in the world.

[9] During an official visit to the United States in September 1959, Nikita Khrushchev took a flight in the S-58 presidential helicopter for the first time and was reportedly extremely impressed.

[12] A luxury version of the Mi-4 was quickly created and Khrushchev took an inspection flight, during which Mikhail Mil proposed that his helicopter in development was more suitable.

[citation needed] This gave Mikhail Mil the power under the orders of Khrushchev to build the original two-engined helicopter, which for the first time in Soviet history would need purpose-built turbine engines, rather than those adapted from fixed wing aircraft (as in the Mil Mi-6 and the first prototype V-8) and an entirely new main rotor gear box that would be designed in-house for the first time.

[citation needed] The fourth prototype was designed as a VIP transport, with the rotor changed from four blades to five blades in 1963 to reduce vibration, the cockpit doors replaced by blister perspex slides and a sliding door added to the cabin.

[citation needed] The Soviet military originally showed little interest in the Mi-8 until the Bell UH-1's involvement in the Vietnam War became widely publicised as a great asset to the United States, allowing troops to move swiftly in and out of a battlefield and throughout the country.

[citation needed] There are numerous variants, including the Mi-8T, which, in addition to carrying 24 troops, is armed with rockets and anti-tank guided missiles.

After their Border Guard service, the helicopters were transferred to the civil register, but shortly thereafter to the Finnish Air Force.

All four Russian crewmembers on board were killed, and after some initial confusion, a UN spokesman said that the South Sudanese army confirmed on 22 December that it mistakenly fired at the helicopter.

[18][19] On 26 August 2014, a UTair Aviation owned Mi-8 working for the United Nations crashed as it approached a landing airstrip near Bentiu.

Rebel commander Peter Gadet claimed that his forces brought it down using a rocket-propelled grenade.

4 reactor of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant after the Chernobyl disaster, and the fire was extinguished by the combined effort of helicopters dropping over 5000 metric tons of sand, lead, clay, and neutron-absorbing boron onto the burning reactor and injecting liquid nitrogen into it.

[26] The Ukrainian Armed Forces used Mi-8MSB along with Mi-24s in operations against separatists in Eastern Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian War.

On 29 May 2014, a Ukrainian National Guard Mi-8 was brought down by Russian separatist forces in Donbas using a MANPADS near Slavyansk with 12 personnel, including an Army general, killed and one seriously injured.

[27] On 24 June 2014, a Ukrainian National Guard Mi-8 was shot down by separatist forces again using a MANPADS near Slavyansk with nine personnel killed.

[32] On 16 October 2023, Ukrainian Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said that the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade had shot down a Mi-8 without supplying the location.

[36][37] During the initial stages of Operation Enduring Freedom, Mi-17s and Mi-8s were extensively used by the CIA and US Special Forces to assist the Northern Alliance in their fight against the Taliban.

The members of Slovenian Territorial Defence fired Strela 2 MANPAD, and shot one helicopter down, killing all crew and passengers.

As most flights were made behind the front, the Croatian forces were able to down just one helicopter, which was hit by small arms fire near Slavonski Brod on 4 October 1991.

During that period, the Republika Srpska Air Force lost three Mi-8 helicopters to enemy fire.

The Republika Srpska Air Force continued to operate nine helicopters, albeit suffering problems with maintenance and spare parts, until it was formally disbanded in 2006.

The Croatian National Guard obtained its first on 23 September 1991, near Petrinja, when a Yugoslav Air Force Mi-8 made an emergency landing after being damaged by small-arms fire.

A further 6 Mi-8T and 18 Mi-8MTV-1 helicopters were bought from ex-Warsaw Pact countries during the war, with 16 being used in active service, and remaining were used as source for spare parts.

In 1999, Yugoslav Mi-8s shot down at least one US Army Hunter UAV with the door gunner's 7.62 mm machine gun.