Russian soldiers captured a Ukrainian exploding drone — then it blew up and killed several of them: report
- Russian soldiers intercepted a Ukrainian drone and successfully landed it, the Kyiv Post reported.
- But as they were photographing the drone, it blew up, Ukrainian intelligence told the outlet.
Russian soldiers were inspecting a captured Ukrainian drone they had seized when it blew up and killed some of them, The Kyiv Post reported on Monday.
It said the drone was a "kamikaze" model — long-range winged drones that explode on impact.
A source in Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) told the outlet the Russian soldiers hacked the drone's control systems and were able to land it in Kursk, some 50 miles inside Russian territory.
The group was inspecting and taking pictures of their "trophy" when it self-exploded, killing some of them, the source said.
It is unclear how many died, but there were several senior people in the group, Kyiv Post reported, citing the intelligence source.
Insider was unable to independently verify the report.
In recent months, Ukraine has been targeting Russian cities with almost daily drone attacks. Their drones helped destroy a $500 million Russian air defense system and shut down Moscow-area airports.
But Russia has been able to deal a blow to these efforts with its jamming technology, which is said to be getting better and better.
UK think tank the Royal United Services Institute said in May that Ukraine could be losing 10,000 drones a month, mostly due to jamming.
"Russia deploys the jamming technique a lot — they jam the GPS signals, they broadcast noise on the same frequency that GPS satellites work at so that the drones lose their direction," Steve Wright, a drone technology developer and expert, previously told Insider.