A grandma in Kyiv says she took out a suspicious drone while Russia was attacking by throwing a jar of pickled tomatoes at it

• A grandma in Kyiv told local media she destroyed a drone with a jar of pickles.
• The story, already celebrated online, was assumed to be a morale-boosting war myth.

A grandmother in Kyiv claimed to have taken out a drone by throwing a jar of pickles at it.

Rumors of such an exploit circulated online for days without reliable confirmation.

But Ukrainian news outlet Liga.Life reported that a woman got in touch saying the story is real, and described her own grandmother, who gave an interview to the outlet.

Identifying herself only as a journalist-turned-entrepreneur called Elena, the grandmother told the outlet that she had indeed downed the drone. Liga.Life did not give a date for the pickle attack.

Elena told the outlet that she was sitting on her balcony smoking just before dawn when she heard a buzzing noise and saw something floating.

At first she thought it was a bird, but then she realised it was something else, she said.

The nearest heavy thing was a jar of pickles under her chair, per Elena's account.

Per Liga.Life, Elena was most concerned with correcting claims that the pickled vegetables were cucumbers. She said they were actually tomatoes with plums.

"I don't know where the fables about cucumbers came from," she said.

The outlet said that Elena broke up the wrecked drone and and puts its remains in separate trash cans for fear that it could still be running tracking or recording software.

It was not clear who was operating the drone. Her description does not match the types of heavy, military drone used to launch weapons, but would fit a smaller commercial drone meant mainly to record images.

Modern militaries do operate such drones.

Officials in Kyiv have also warned that saboteurs disguised as civilians have been sent by Russia to the city to gather intelligence to help Russia attack.

Elena told Liga.Life that she thinks the drone was being operated by looters trying to identify empty homes to steal from.

Afterwards, she told the outlet, she swept the street of debris so that dogs on the street wouldn't cut their paws.

Liga.Life's story brings credibility to what had previously been thought of as a morale-boosting war myth, several of which have emerged since Russia's invasion.

The phrase "Russian warship, go fuck yourself" became a rallying cry on February 24, after border guards on Zmiinyi Island defied the invaders with those words — and, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, were killed.

Their martyrdom was short-lived, however, after it emerged that they had instead been captured.

Another stirring legend is the figure of the "Ghost of Kyiv," a fighter pilot who is credited with bringing down six Russian planes.

Russian military officials have referred to the mythical pilot, but offered no evidence that they are a real person. The Ukrainian defense ministry did not respond to Deutsche Welle's query about the hero.

The outlet's analysis of social media posts that claim to show the pilot and his achievements concluded that he is likely not real.