Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR) on Friday warned of intensified Russian drone strikes against civilian targets along the front line.
The agency said its intelligence suggests Russian drone units have received orders to target “gas stations, trucks, buses, and cars” specifically.
JOIN US ON TELEGRAM
Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.
“Units of the Russian occupation army have received an order to intensify drone strikes on civilian infrastructure and transport in frontline areas and border areas,” the update says.
The Russian campaign is likely carried out in response to Kyiv’s intensified “middle strike” campaign against Russian logistics in the rear supplying the occupied Ukrainian regions.
HUR added that the campaign is led by Russia’s elite “Rubikon” drone unit and supported by “external pilots of linear units of the occupation army.”
It said the campaign “poses a real threat to the civilian population” and urged locals to seek shelter during air-raid alerts.
The Russian military also planned to use drones with real-time image feedback – as opposed to long-range drones like the Shahed that use preloaded coordinates – for the campaign, HUR said.
“To search for and destroy targets, they plan to use real-time controlled drones such as ‘Molniya-1,’ ‘Molniya-2,’ ‘Geran-Seeker,’ ‘Gerbera-Seeker.’ ‘Lancet,’ V2U and other similar unmanned systems,” HUR wrote.
Friendly targets
The agency also noted a few friendly-fire incidents during the new Russian campaign, where it alleges that Russian forces targeted their own troops due to “low level of training of the crews.”
Russia Drops 5 Guided Bombs on Sumy, Hits Civilian Infrastructure
“Operators of the 1427th motorized rifle regiment of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, due to a loss of orientation, aimed a ‘Molniya-2’ at a civilian UAZ ‘Bukhanka’ car near the settlement of Glushkove, Kursk region in Russia,” the update says.
“The drone did not hit the target – it detonated approximately 10 meters [33 feet] from the car,” it adds.
The agency also accused the Russian special services of staging false-flag attacks on Russian frontline regions and blaming them on Ukrainian forces.
“At the same time, similar attacks against their own civilian population in the border regions of the aggressor state are often directed by Russian special services in order to use the Kremlin’s propaganda in a campaign to demonize and discredit Ukraine,” it wrote.
One such potential incident took place in June when a bus carrying a Belarusian children’s football team was struck in Russia’s Bryansk region. Russia blamed Ukrainian drones for the strikes, while Ukraine denied them and called it a false-flag operation.
The incident took place amid warnings that Moscow had tried to drag Minsk into the war.
You can also highlight the text and press Ctrl + Enter
