Ukraine’s drone scouts hunt down, kill Russian battalion commander in occupied area

The HUR agency reported the successful mission on its website, posting a video of the ambush.

"On December 29, 2024, on the Vasylivka-Tokmak highway, FPV drone operators from the defense intelligence’s Kraken active operations department eliminated the chief of staff of the Storm.Ossetia battalion (an assault unit within the 429th motorized rifle regiment of the Russian armed forces), Sergey “Kama” Melnikov, along with his driver," the report says.

Operatives from the agency’s active operations department obtained intelligence on details of the expected route and schedule of the chief of staff of the Russian battalion in the temporarily occupied part of Zaporizhzhia region.

Thanks to this data, the drone operators orchestrated an FPV ambush to eliminate the enemy commander.

The killer drone first flew toward the front of vehicle on the move, causing the driver to lose control of the car, crashing it into a ditch, which allowed a UAV operator to direct a kamikaze drone through a windshield, killing both the battalion commander and his driver in the vehicle, the report says.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, an explosion was reported in the settlement of Shuya, Ivanovo region (Russia) on January 3, targeting the battery commander at the 112th Missile Brigade Division of the 1st Tank Army of Russia’s Western Military District (unit 03333), Captain Nagayko, who was involved in the killing of 59 people at a memorial service in the village of Hroza, Kharkiv region.