Video Shows Clash Between Russian Soldier and FPV Drone, Ends in Explosion

A video circulating on social media shows a Russian soldier trying to fend off a first-person view (FPV) drone with a bottle of gasoline.

The video, released by the Prytula Charity Foundation, shows the drone flying close to the Russian soldier, who attempts to fight back with a plastic bottle.

However, his efforts are unsuccessful, and the drone continues to target the soldier. Then, from a distance, a video from another camera shows an explosion, likely caused by the gasoline in the bottle.

Kyiv Post could not independently verify the date and location of the video. The authors of the video also did not provide details about where it occurred.

FPV drones, capable of dropping explosives or being used as one-off kamikaze drones, are wreaking havoc on the battlefield.

Recently, a Russian soldier pleaded on social media for pump shotguns to help stop the Ukrainian drones, saying “They’re simply burning through us.”

On the other side, up to 90 percent of wounded Ukrainian soldiers treated at stabilization points have been hit by an FPV drone or explosive dropped by a drone.

Dmytro Lysenko, a drone pilot with the 109th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, hunts for Russian soldiers and heavy armor almost daily in the Donetsk region. However, he admits feeling uneasy when dropping explosives on Russian soldiers.

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The impact of unmanned vehicles in the air, on the ground, and at sea could not have been predicted five years ago but their influence on the Ukrainian battlefield released the genie from the bottle.

“Even when we drop explosives from drones on Russians, I sometimes shiver and feel discomfort because I remember all those times I was sitting in a trench. The Russians would shoot at us with everything possible. But the drone was the scariest,” he told Kyiv Post.

“A shell can fly and miss, and that's it. But a drone pilot aims to be very accurate when they drop an explosive,” he said.

The Ukrainian Special Operations Forces (SSO) reported earlier the elimination of nine Russian soldiers with FPV drones. The released video depicted Ukrainian kamikaze drones targeting the Russian soldiers, some of whom attempted to evade them.

SSO fighters earlier reported destroying several pieces of Russian heavy equipment, including a T-72 tank, and eliminating 11 Russian soldiers with drones.