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Crashed Tupolev drone in Zagreb, Croatia (on March 12).
Photo: Zeljko Hladika / Pixsell / IMAGO
It is currently raining drones in Europe, in many places these unmanned aircraft are falling from the sky.
In Romania, for example, a young man found a reconnaissance drone without a license plate, but probably from Russia.
The thing looks almost dainty like a toy, with a wingspan of around three meters.
It is probably an Orlan-10, a Russian-made reconnaissance drone.
The drone that hit just a few kilometers from the center of the Croatian capital Zagreb on Thursday evening a week ago was significantly more massive: the wreck is 14 meters long, weighs six tons and is a technical dinosaur – a Tupolev TU-141, a relic of the Soviet era.
Finally, on Monday, a Russian reconnaissance drone coming from western Ukraine is said to have violated Polish airspace before turning and being shot down over western Ukraine on the return flight.
At least that's what the Ukrainian Air Force reports.
The Russian scout plane could be a »Forpost« (Russian for "outpost").
Is Putin now starting a drone offensive – even beyond the previous areas of the combat zone?
However, experts consider a Russian escalation to be unlikely and are more likely to assume that it is a stray flight that can be traced back to bad luck and bungling.
Russia lags behind other nations like the US, Israel and China when it comes to drone technology.
From the very beginning, Ukraine has relied on Turkish-made Bayraktar drones for national defense.
Putin's invading army now seems to be testing its own systems.
The Kalashnikov company, known for the AK47 assault rifle, has also been represented with the »KUB-E« since 2019.
The small drone can probably carry an explosive device and a camera weighing around three kilograms to the target, but is itself destroyed in the detonation.
Lately, the kamikaze weapon has allegedly appeared on the streets of Kyiv.
It should be suitable for targeted assassinations.
However, the pilots have to be relatively close to their target during the mission - the device is quite slow and can only remain in the air for half an hour.
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