Ukraine’s forces in Donbas have delivered their first ever drone missile strike against Russian-sponsored militants on Oct. 26, using the Bayraktar TB2, an unmanned aerial system purchased from Turkey.
As seen in a video released by the armed forces, the drone targeted an enemy D-30 howitzer from the sky before unleashing a guided projectile that silenced the artillery piece.
According to the Ukrainian military, the assault was launched in retaliation for the shelling that killed a Ukrainian soldier in the area and wounded another.
A squadron of militants was using its 122-millimeter D-30 howitzers to attack Ukrainian lines near the town of Hranitne in Donetsk Oblast, some 630 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
According to the Minsk ceasefire accords signed by the warring parties in September 2014 and February 2015, weapons of this class must be pulled at least 25 kilometers away from the front line.
The day before the attack, the occupying authorities of Donbas had accused the Ukrainian military of attempting to retake Staromariivka, a tiny settlement trapped between the Ukrainian and militant lines, just south of Hranitne.