Putin avoids attack with Ukrainian kamikaze drone

During its second combat flight, the Ukrainian Liutyi long-range drone hit a base of Russian helicopters in the Adler district of Sochi; the day before, Russian leader Vladimir Putin met with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev there.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda’s article Sanctions from 1,000 kilometres away: the story of the Ukrainian drone Liutyi (Fierce) burning Russian oil refineries (English translation coming soon).

Details: On 1 October 2023, a helicopter base that served Putin's residence, among others, came under attack by the Liutyi.

"We hit their helicopter landing site and damaged several helicopters. But we didn't know at first that the day before we hit Adler, Putin had met with Tokayev there. Putin was 12 kilometres away from the place where the second strike of Liutyi took place. This was confirmed to us later," intelligence sources tell Ukrainska Pravda.

At the same time, the Russians did not even know what hit them.

"When it struck Sochi, they assumed it was from a ship or from the mountains in Georgia. They had no idea it came from Ukraine. And then all of a sudden it hit St. Petersburg – practically the opposite end of the country. It was evidently a shock for them", a person involved in the launches recalls in a conversation with Ukrainska Pravda.

Read the article by Ukrainska Pravda to find out how the Ukrainian kamikaze drone Liutyi went the way from a single model to the main arsonist of Russian factories and airfields in the context of the full-scale war, why Ukrainian operators were afraid to launch it, and how the competition between the special services gave the drone a chance to become a truly serial weapon.

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