Viral war video: Russian soldier throws rifle at Ukrainian suicide drone but gets blown away

Both Russia and Ukraine frequently release videos of their drone units clinically taking out enemy bunkers, tanks, and equipment at the frontlines. There have also been viral videos that showed soldiers on both sides narrowly avoiding incoming drone strikes—either by daringly shooting at the UAVs or by quickly moving out of their strike range.

 

In the latest such instance, a desperate effort by a lone Russian soldier to evade an incoming enemy Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was released on social media.

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The 25-second viral video began by showing a soldier, in full military gear, emerging from ruins into the open. As he rushed out, a First-Person View (FPV) drone began to chase him, with the video showing the pursuit from multiple angles. The area appeared to be a pasture, offering little cover for the serviceman to utilize. Not long after he left the ruins, the drone caught up with him. 

 

The footage captured the drone zeroing in on the fleeing enemy—not from behind, but from the front. In a last-gasp effort to make the drone detonate at a safe distance, the terrified Russian soldier threw his rifle at it. The heavy automatic rifle made contact with the fast-approaching UAV and triggered an explosion. However, the outcome was not what the soldier might have envisioned, as the powerful blast still struck him—blowing him several metres away. When the dust settled, the soldier was seen lying motionless on the grass.

WATCH THE VIRAL VIDEO HERE:
(Trigger Warning: Violence)

The video, which THE WEEK could not independently verify, also displayed a Ukrainian military patch in the top-right corner. It closely resembled the insignia of the 414th Marine Strike UAV Battalion—a unit of the Ukrainian Marine Corps specializing in attack drones, signals intelligence, and electronic warfare systems, among other operations. It remained unclear where and when the Russian soldier met his fate, or what happened to the rest of his comrades.

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In an attack earlier this month, dubbed "Operation Spider's Web," Ukraine targeted Russian long-range bombers at air bases. Meanwhile, Russia had intensified its drone and missile strikes on Ukrainian cities in recent months. A missile attack on Tuesday in southeastern Ukraine killed at least 17 people.

 

Elsewhere, Russian air defence units destroyed dozens of Ukrainian drones over widely separated regions of Russia on Tuesday, including more than 40 over the Voronezh region on the Ukrainian border, according to Russian officials.

 

Voronezh regional governor Alexander Gusev, writing on Telegram, said there were no injuries, and more than 40 drones were destroyed over urban areas and near the border. In the Rostov region, on Ukraine’s eastern border, Governor Yuri Slyusar said air defence units repelled a number of attacks in three areas. However, drones damaged a sports complex in the city of Taganrog and a grain storage facility in the town of Azov.

 

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