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Unique operation: UAV operators use drone-dropped munitions to rescue three captured Ukrainian soldiers from Russians

Unique operation: UAV operators use drone-dropped munitions to rescue three captured Ukrainian soldiers from Russians

Yahoo28-04-2025

UAV operators from Ukraine's defence forces have rescued three Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russian forces during active combat operations on the Sumy front.
Source: State Border Guard Service of Ukraine
Details: Drone operators from the border guard reconnaissance units detected a Russian group that had captured three Ukrainian defenders. Several UAV crews from the 1st Separate Tank Siversk Brigade were deployed to intercept and wipe out the Russian troops.
Ukrainian UAV operators carried out a unique joint operation, managing to separate the Russians from the Ukrainian soldiers and, by dropping munitions, forced the Russian troops to flee. The strikes were so precise that the Russians had no chance: they abandoned the POWs and retreated to save their own lives.
Subsequently, with the combined efforts of operators from defence force units and using drone lights for guidance, the Ukrainian soldiers were successfully brought back to Ukrainian positions.
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Anti-Gang Drone Attacks Won't Put Haiti Back Together Again
Anti-Gang Drone Attacks Won't Put Haiti Back Together Again

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Anti-Gang Drone Attacks Won't Put Haiti Back Together Again

In the first five months of 2025, a special police task force in Haiti, reportedly aided by private military contractors, has used small commercial drones armed with improvised explosives in dozens of attacks targeting the gangs that threaten to take over the country. Several hundred people have reportedly been killed in the drone strikes, though the police have yet to assassinate any of the top gang leaders, which is one of their stated intentions. Haitian gangs now control a large majority of the country, and a few weeks ago I wrote that absent a significant increase in material support for the country's government, they will win the battle against government forces 'within months if not weeks.' Can these explosive drone attacks change the course of the conflict enough to upend that analysis? Given how important drone warfare has become to military strategy, and how rapidly military strategists are adapting to those changes, the results in Haiti matter—not only for Haiti, but for every weak state struggling to fend off organized criminal groups and insurgencies that often outgun them. Throughout the 2010s, the U.S. government used armed drones to hit high-value terrorist targets throughout the Middle East and North Africa, writing the playbook for how great powers can use drone warfare to target small cells of enemies. The effort was disruptive to the leadership of terrorist organizations, but it required significant intelligence and expensive technology. It also came with high costs, causing high levels of civilian casualties and collateral damage that often undermined the broader effort. To get more in-depth news and expert analysis on global affairs from WPR, sign up for our free Daily Review newsletter. In the past two years, Yemen's Houthis have used much cheaper armed drones to disrupt global shipping lanes in the Red Sea, a demonstration of terrorist groups using these new weapons platforms for global economic impact. Countering these attacks has proven difficult for the U.S. and its allies, as the weapons needed to stop the drones cost far more than the drones themselves. Last week, Ukraine's incredibly innovative armed drone attack took out numerous Russian aircraft that could be used to deliver nuclear weapons. Though the results of that attack are still inconclusive, Ukraine's effort suggests that drones can provide an asymmetric advantage for a small country invaded by a much larger rival, even one that is a nuclear power. Ukraine's ability to inflict serious tactical damage on Russia has helped keep Kyiv in the fight and affected Moscow's strategic capabilities, but has yet to bring the war in Ukraine closer to its end. These examples show how drones have altered the balance of military power in conflicts involving a strong government targeting terrorists, terrorists targeting global shipping lanes and a weak state targeting a strong state. Haiti is now testing whether drones can be effective when a very weak state fights organized criminal groups that have morphed into an insurgency. In the best-case scenario that Haitian officials have used in trying to sell the strategy through the media, the drones will manage to kill some gang leaders and force the other gangs to slow their offensive due to fear of future attacks. The theory is that the time it takes gang leaders to update their calculus of the conflict and devise a counterstrategy will give the government breathing room to regroup its forces. It will then mount a larger offensive to retake territory from the gangs, which reportedly control 85 percent of the country, including most of the capital, Port-au-Prince. 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Kyiv bids farewell to emergency workers killed while dealing with aftermath of Russian attack
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Ukraine says Russia launched the biggest overnight drone bombardment of the war
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Ukraine says Russia launched the biggest overnight drone bombardment of the war

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