A new type of weapon may have been unleashed in the Eastern European battlefield when an oil pumping station in Russia was reportedly attacked by Ukrainian drones.
Sometime between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, drones operated by the Ukrainian 14th Separate Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Regiment reportedly hit an oil pumping station on the Druzhba pipeline that spans the Russian-Belarusian border in Bryansk Oblast.
The Druzhba pipeline is a critical piece of energy infrastructure for Russia and one the largest pipelines in the world. The drone attack left the area burning so severely that NASA’s fire-detecting satellites were able to register the blaze that lit up the dark sky.
While Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia are not new, they have almost always involved drones packed with explosives directly crashing into their target. In the latest incident, however, the drones reportedly dropped bombs on the target, potentially revealing a new type of weapon being deployed on the battlefield.
Russia has similarly been using drones extensively, a trend that appears to be rising. Retired U.S. Army Gen. John Adams, writing in The Dallas Express last year, said the use of cheaply-made drones has upended modern warfare.
“There’s a race happening between Ukraine and Russia to build vast drone fleets. Ukraine is trying to make more than a million drones this year to halt Russian advances and get back on the offensive,” Adams wrote.
“Lightweight, cheap to manufacture, and remotely guided for precision strikes, drones have upended the battlefield. Militaries around the world are taking note.”
Russia said its defense forces shot down over 100 Ukrainian drones over multiple regions in the country overnight, though the claims have yet to be verified.
Putin told Russian state TV that Moscow is willing to sit down with Kyiv, but not while Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy remains in office, whom he considers “illegitimate.” Russia alleges that Zelenskyy has no legal authority because his term in office ran out in May 2024.
However, Ukrainian officials insist that Zelenskyy is the legitimate president because the state has been under martial law since the invasion began and wartime conditions have not allowed for a presidential election to take place, Reuters reported.
“But essentially, if they want to proceed, there is a legal way to do it. Let the chairman of the [Ukrainian parliament] handle it in accordance with the constitution,” Putin recently said, per Reuters.