- A drone successfully struck a Russian SUV on a dirt road in the Kharkiv region.
- A video shared by Ukraine's Defense Ministry shows the drone operator celebrating the strike.
A Ukrainian soldier's excitable reaction to a successful strike by his first-person-view (FPV) exploding drone on an enemy truck has been captured in a video.
—Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) August 30, 2023
The video, shared by Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, as well as on other official channels, shows a drone operator reacting to his weapon's movements while wearing a Ukrainian military uniform and a head-mounted display.
Alongside the reaction footage is a video of the drone in action.
The drone can be seen flying toward its target, an enemy vehicle, which the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine said was a Russian-produced UAZ military truck.
In the footage, the drone can be seen approaching and successfully hitting the vehicle, eliciting cheers from the soldier.
Footage from an alternate angle shows a trail of smoke following the truck as it continues to move down the dirt road.
"The hand of a master," said Ukraine's Ministry of Defense in a post on X, which was formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday. "The border guards of the 'Steel Border' could compete with the jewelers of Antwerp."
The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine said in a news release that the "kamikaze drone" was equipped with a grenade launcher that hit the truck, in the Kharkiv region, causing it to drive under a tree and come to a halt.
No one got out of the vehicle, it added.
Ukraine calls these FPVs with improvised warheads attached "kamikazes" because the warhead destroys the drone itself. They can execute strikes that would be out of reach for other types of weapons, according to The Economist.
A YouTube channel for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine said border guards were conducting reconnaissance operations when they noticed an enemy truck heading toward the "positions of the occupiers."
The operator of the drone "delivered an explosive gift" to the truck, it said.