During October 2024, the Russian Federation used more than 2,000 UAVs against Ukraine. About half of these drones were decoys or false targets to distract Ukrainian air defense.
Points of attention
- The Russian Federation uses fake drones as decoys and fake targets to distract Ukrainian air defense.
- Russian "parody" drones imitate expensive combat drones and are made of components from different countries.
- Ukrainian intelligence has discovered that even a primitive plywood drone of the Russian Federation is difficult to manufacture independently.
- The drones flew to Moldova and Belarus, where some "Shahedis" disappeared without a trace.
- The study showed that the Russian Federation uses imitation drones in attacks on Ukraine and hides the origin of the components.
Why is the Russian Federation massively launching fake drones over Ukraine?
As noted in Ukrainian intelligence, the "parody" is one of the main decoy drones that the aggressor uses en masse in air attacks.
On November 10, 2024, two such drones fell on the territory of Moldova.
It is noted that these UAVs do not have a combat unit. They are much smaller and cheaper than the Shahed-136/Geranium-2, but due to the Lüneberg lens they mimic them in radar.
In other words, the study of Russian "parodies" proved that even a primitive "plywood" drone is not capable of being produced by Russia on its own, the GUR noted.
The "parody" flight controller module contains components manufactured by companies from China (Ebyte, Jiashan Jinchang Electron, Yangzhou Yangjie Electronic Technology), USA (Texas Instruments, Cypress Semiconductor, InvenSense), Switzerland (STMicroelectronics) and Taiwan (SONiX Technology).
Russian "martyrs" got lost in Belarus and Moldova
As the monitoring group notes, at least 10 drones flew from Ukraine to Belarus on the night of November 10.
Drones flew through the "Belarusian corridor" Slavutych-Prypyat, as well as through Chernobyl and the city of Loyev. The drones flew to the Mozyr district.
Some of the drones later turned back in the direction of Ukraine. One drone returned to the Chernihiv region, and then again flew to Belarus and from there to Russia.
According to analysts, at least three "Shakhed" disappeared over the territory of Belarus.
An unknown drone was also found in Moldova on the morning of November 10. It was discovered in the area of the village of Firleden.
The network notes that the drone discovered in Moldova is an imitation drone that the Russian Federation launches over Ukraine.
