This footage shows a Ukrainian drone evading detection and managing to injure Russian soldiers, causing them to flee.

The footage begins by showing a Russian soldier who appears to be holding an anti-drone rifle. He does not spot the drone overhead, with the Ukrainian UAV slowly moving into position above him and his comrades.

The footage then appears to show a bomb being dropped from the drone that can be seen bouncing off a branch on its way down. After a few seconds’ delay, there is an explosion.

The Russian soldiers then flee, at least one of them visibly injured, as the drone continues to track them. They eventually disappear under the foliage of the trees.

The images were obtained from the 30th Prince Konstanty Ostrogski Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces on Tuesday, 18th October, along with a statement saying: “30 OMBr drones make several dozen productive sorties every day.

“We see every step of the occupiers. We control their every breath. That is why, thanks to the professionalism of our soldiers, the number of enemy infantry is decreasing.”

Russia invaded Ukraine on 24th February in what the Kremlin is still calling a “special military operation”. Today marks the 237th day of the war.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that between 24th February and 18th October, Russia had lost about 65,850 personnel, 2,548 tanks, 5,219 armoured combat vehicles, 1,622 artillery units, 372 multiple launch rocket systems, 188 air defence systems, 268 warplanes, 242 helicopters, 1,276 drones, 318 cruise missiles, 16 warships, 3,985 motor vehicles and fuel tankers, and 144 units of special equipment.

Russia has claimed that its casualties have been much lower but provides infrequent updates on its latest figures.

A series of kamikaze drone strikes hit the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Monday, killing four people. The Ukrainian authorities have said that these were Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones.

The United States’ State Department has said that it agrees with the United Kingdom and France that these drones violate UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which bars Iran from transferring certain military technologies abroad.

Iran has so far denied supplying the drones to Russia but US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel has said that the United States has “exposed publicly that Russia has received drones from Iran, that this was part of Russia’s plan to import hundreds of Iranian UAVs of various types.”

Patel also said that there was “extensive proof” of Russia using them in Ukraine.

But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Monday: “The published news about Iran providing Russia with drones has political ambitions and it is circulated by western sources. We have not provided weaponry to any side of the countries at war.”

Ukraine’s Prime Minister, Denys Shmygal, has said that Russia launched five strikes on Kyiv. He also said that there were attacks against energy infrastructure in Sumy and the central Dnipropetrovsk regions, which deprived power to hundreds of towns.

The Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, has called on the European Union to sanction Iran for providing Russia with the drones that killed the four people in the Ukrainian capital on Monday.

A Russian warplane has crashed in a residential area of the town of Yeysk, in south-western Russia, near the border with Ukraine, according to Russian state-run news agencies, citing the Russian Ministry of Defence.

Ukraine has said that it has exchanged more than 100 prisoners with Russia in what it said was the first all-female swap with the Kremlin since the beginning of Russia’s invasion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “The more Russian prisoners we have, the sooner we will be able to free our heroes. Every Ukrainian soldier, every frontline commander should remember this.”

The Ukrainian military has said that it is pushing closer to the Russian-occupied city of Kherson, in southern Ukraine.

The European Union has agreed to create a mission to train 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers.

Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian state TV journalist who staged an on-air protest against the war in March, has fled Russia, her lawyer has said.