Story By: Ana Marjanovic, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash
These images show how the pro-Russian separatists of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic are carrying out leaflet-dropping campaigns using drones.
The footage shows a soldier setting up a portable drone-launching platform before putting together a drone. The drone is then launched into the air carrying various leaflets that are then released onto urban areas once the aircraft is in range.
The images were obtained from the People’s Militia of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), a separatist-held piece of territory in eastern Ukraine which is recognised by Russia as a sovereign state but not by the vast majority of the international community.
The DPR’s People’s Militia said: “One of the priority tasks of the People’s Militia of the DPR is to suppress the moral and psychological state of the enemy. To accomplish this goal, leaflet-dropping is used, including with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, one of which is the Orlan-10.”
The Orlan-10 is a reconnaissance drone built by the Special Technology Centre (STC) in St Petersburg for the Russian military. It is currently unclear where exactly in eastern Ukraine the images were filmed.
Russian troops invaded Ukraine on 24th February in what the Kremlin is still calling a “special military operation”. Today marks the 104th day of the campaign.
From 24th February to 7th June, the total combat losses of Russian troops stand at around 31,360 personnel, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military also claims that Russia has lost 1,390 tanks, 3,416 armoured fighting vehicles, 694 artillery systems, 207 multiple launch rocket systems, 96 anti-aircraft warfare systems, 212 aircrafts, 177 helicopters, 2,405 motor vehicles and fuel tanks, 13 naval vessels, 553 unmanned aerial vehicles, 53 special equipment units, and 125 cruise missiles.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communications (StratCom) said on 6th June that Russian Major General Roman Kutuzov was killed in a battle near Popasna in the Luhansk region. This has now been confirmed by Russian state media.
The United Kingdom and the United States have announced that they are sending long-range missile systems to Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned of more attacks in Ukraine if the West sends long-range weapons.
Russian missiles struck Kyiv on Sunday in the first assault on the Ukrainian capital in weeks.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Russian attacks on the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk has turned them into “dead cities”. But he added that Ukrainian forces could still hold Severodonetsk despite being outnumbered.
Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, has walked out of a Security Council meeting after his country was blamed by European Council president Charles Michel for triggering a global food crisis.
