Depot With Iranian Missiles Was Targeted: CNN Shows Attack Of Ukrainian Drones Lyutyi
- 17.10.2024, 7:47
Exclusive footage.
American journalists showed footage of the work of the Ukrainian intelligence unit using the An-196 Lyutyi long-range drone. These UAVs recently hit a warehouse in the Kotlubani area of the Russian Federation, where Iranian missiles were stationed.
CNN reported.
The publication of the American media indicates that exclusive access to one of the Ukrainian units of long-range drones, which is part of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, was obtained.
Its participants call themselves a long-range UAV unit. And they talked about the use of Lyutyi drones with a length of about 4 m and a wingspan of 7 m.
The commander from the GUR (Ukrainian Defence Intelligence) with the call sign "Serge" and the commander of the "Vektor" unit communicated with the journalists. This happened when the unit was preparing to launch more than 100 drones on the night of September 29 in the direction of the Russian Federation.
According to "Serge", he personally controlled more than 500 attacks of long-range drones on the territory of Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
According to Ukrainian intelligence officers, their target was an enemy ammunition depot, namely, trains standing inside the depot, loaded with recently delivered Iranian missiles.
This warehouse is located in the vicinity of the village of Kotluban in the Volgograd region of Russia.
Launching Lyutyi drones at the target
The GUR fighters, in a conversation with representatives of the American media, noted that they manage to find "windows" in the Russian air defense during drone attack operations.
Each drone will be programmed with more than 1,000 different waypoints to avoid complex Russian air defence systems.
As the Vektor told, smaller drones are critical to the success of any mission. The goal is to overcome air defence and divert Russian fire from the Lyutyi, which often carries a payload of up to 250 kilograms.
Features of drone attacks
To "deceive" Russian radars, strips of metal foil are attached to the wings.
The Vektor also said that their targets in drone strikes are exclusively military facilities.
At the same time, in other regions of Ukraine, about 80 other employees of the GRU are preparing to launch 90 other drones, not all of these UAVs are the Lyutyi drones.
About 30% of all launched drones will perform decoy missions, Serge told reporters.
Strike on the warehouse in Kotlubani and consequences
The drones were programmed to fly at a distance of about 725 m to 885 m, and the Lyutyi drones was the main one - designed to strike at the composition of ammunition in Kotlubani.
Ukrainian intelligence officers said that the success of the mission is monitored in three ways: through reconnaissance on the ground, messages in Russian Telegram groups and, later, analysis using satellite technologies. Only after evaluating all three methods can the mission be considered successful or not.
Already after the attack, initial satellite images of ammunition in Kotlubani show scorched fields as a result of grass burning. At first, it seemed that there was no evidence of strong explosions inside.
Operation footage
However, the GUR shared a video from the depot area with CNN. And it is noted that CNN journalists were able to independently view and verify aspects of the video without blurring for authentication.
A source in defence intelligence said that their data made it possible to make sure that the explosions inside the depot in the Kotlubani area were powerful.
The accelerated CNN video showed 11 blasts that took place over 56 minutes between 2:22 a.m. and 3:18 a.m. - precisely the period during which Ukrainian drones were supposed to land on targets.
American journalists were also able to independently verify through sources that there was a direct strike on the source object.
Later, a satellite image by Maxar Technologies showed less varied scrap on the outskirts, which may indicate that the Russian military cleared the place, but that same building was badly damaged.
The Ukrainian side emphasizes that the mission to destroy the missiles supplied by Iran was successful.