The war in Ukraine is turning toward the worst, as the Wagner Group mutined before backing down.
What could happen next?
We all know one thing is clear: both sides are armed to the teeth with deadly drone weapons and will use them immediately when a target appears. And most of the action will be recorded and uploaded to social media for all of the world to see and analyze.
Carnage: Russia Downs Ukrainian Drone Over Russian Soil
Back toward the end of March, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that a Ukrainian drone had been shot down by air defense systems over the town of Kireyevsk, roughly 250 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border.
According to a statement shared on Instagram, Ukrainian forces used a Strizh Tu-141 unmanned aerial vehicle that had been fitted with explosives.
“On March 26, the Kyiv regime carried out a request to carry out an attack by an unmanned aerial vehicle of the type ‘Stryzh (Tu-141,” a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense reads.
Moscow touted its air defense systems, describing how the Ukrainian drone was taken down at 15:20 local time using S-300 missiles and Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile systems. The statement also praised the Pole-21 electronic countermeasure system, designed to protect infrastructure from cruise missiles, drones, and smart bombs that utilize modern navigation and positioning systems.
The Russian MoD also confirmed that Russian law enforcement officials were present at the site of the crash.
“Unmanned aerial vehicle, lost orientation, fell near Kireyevsk settlement, Tula region. Specialists of the Russian Ministry of Defense the Ministry of Emergencies of Russia and law enforcement agencies are working at the site of the UAV crash,” the statement reads.
Officials Say Three Injured
Russia’s TASS news agency reported that three people were injured as the drone was shot from the sky.
Two young men were reportedly injured by shrapnel, and one other incurred only minor injuries. Local officials initially said that five residential properties incurred damage during the incident, but TASS later reported that sixteen house in total – including ten apartment blocks – had been damaged by the explosion.
“According to updated reports, ten private houses were partially damaged due to the incident, windows were broken in sic multi-apartment houses. <…> Local emergencies services and defense ministry specialists arrived to the site,” the Russian news agency quoted Russian officials as saying.
Video footage of the incident was shared on social media, showing the remains of homes severely damaged in the strike. Homes surrounding a crater caused by the explosion were reduced mostly to rubble.
#BREAKING An explosion on Sunday that hurt two people and created a crater in the centre of the town of Kireyevsk in Russia’s Tula region was caused by a drone: TASS pic.twitter.com/IJEioxOJcN
— Guy Elster (@guyelster) March 26, 2023
Investigators appear to have already removed fragments of the Ukrainian drone from the blast site in the Tula region.
Around the same time, Ukrainian drones previously struck Russia’s Engels airbase some 600km from the Ukrainian border using modified Tu-141 drones.
Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
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