Video Shows Drone Dive Bomb Entrenched Russian Soldiers: Ukraine

Russian soldiers were recently subjected to drone attacks in Bakhmut as the Ukrainian city remains on the front lines of the war.

Last week, the Wagner Group—a private Russian paramilitary company—claimed "liberation" of Soledar, a salt-mining city 9 miles north of Bakhmut. Fighting continues in the area, and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) published a report that said Russian forces began advancing toward Bakhmut after capturing Soledar.

Ukraine continues to deny that Russia has completely captured Soledar, Newsweek previously reported. Ukraine continues to fight back, and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shared a Facebook post Tuesday morning accompanied by a video showing a recent drone attack against Russian forces.

The attack came from Ukrainian special forces and targeted Russian soldiers hiding in a trench near Bakhmut. A translation of the post said the special forces "created hell" for the Russian soldiers fighting near Bakhmut.

Ukraine soldier holds missile system
Ukrainian soldiers are on standby with a U.S.-made Stinger MANPAD (man-portable air-defense system) on the front line on December 29, 2022, in Bakhmut, Ukraine. Ukrainian forces recently launched drone attacks against Russian forces hiding in... GETTY

"During aerial reconnaissance, our soldiers discovered the trenches of the enemy, already dotted with the corpses of the invaders," the post said, according to a translation. "And after a series of attacks by kamikaze drones on their positions, the number of eliminated Russians increased significantly."

Chilling music plays in the background of the video, which shows what appears to be Russian soldiers hiding in a trench. Then, the video switches to a view from a kamikaze drone as it locks in on a target in the trench. The view switches again to show a brief explosion in the trench. The process repeats several times before the video ends.

The post didn't specify if the drones used were the long-range Switchblade 600 drones recently supplied by the United States.

The post also didn't say how many soldiers were killed from the drone attacks. Ukraine recently claimed that its forces have killed 117,000 Russian troops since the start of the war nearly 11 months ago. If the numbers are true, Newsweek reported that more Russians have died in the war than American troops died in World War I.

As winter approached, both Russian and Ukrainian forces faced a stalemate in the war. Ukraine initiated strong counteroffensive attacks and regained control of Kherson in November, which Russia had occupied since the start of the war.

Battles then shifted to Bakhmut and Soledar as Ukraine awaited more supplies and weapons from the West, and Russia considered the possibility of another mobilization.

Newsweek reached out to the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine for comment.

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