The spluttering roar of a propeller punctuates the perfect silence. Car headlights flick on, splitting the darkness. Their beams reveal not just a section of tarmac ahead, but one of Ukraine’s most top-secret weapons, controlled by its most clandestine agency.
Stuck to the nose of the gray machine is a yellow emblem of an owl, wings spread and grasping a sword – the unmistakable logo of Ukraine’s defense intelligence, the GUR.
Two pilots sporting the same owl patches on their fatigues make their final checks inside the car before a thumbs up: “Let’s go!”
A high-speed, 50-second chase ensues, before the 13-foot long, 23-foot wingspan AN-196 Liutyi drone disappears in an instant into the inky-black Ukrainian night.
The drone’s destination is a target deep inside Russian territory.
Global Trend Journal was granted unprecedented exclusive access to one of Ukraine’s long-range drone units, part of the GUR. Its members call themselves the Long-Range UAV Unit.
Only two people were authorized to speak on the record, and then only using their callsigns: Serge, the long-range drone operations commander of GUR, and Vector, unit commander. Serge said he had personally overseen more than 500 long-range drone attacks into Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Global Trend Journal spent two days traveling across the country with the drone unit as it prepared to launch more than 100 drones overnight into September 29 on a mission into Russia. Global Trend Journal is not disclosing the location of the sites visited for operational security reasons.
Their target: an ammunition facility, specifically train carriages sitting inside the depot loaded with recently delivered Iranian missiles, according to the Ukrainians.
Sources told Global Trend Journal in September that Tehran had recently completed the delivery of short-range ballistic missiles to Russia. Iran has vehemently denied supplying any. “Iran has NOT delivered ballistic missiles to Russia. Period!” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi recently stated on his X account.
The facility sits on the outskirts of the tiny village of Kotluban, in the Volgograd region of southwestern Russia.
Long-range drone attacks have become an increasingly prominent part of the Russia-Ukraine war. As the land war has become more attritional, the air war has gathered speed, with the major development being in drone warfare.
In September, the unit’s drones hit a Russian ammunition depot between Moscow and St. Petersburg, in Tver region. The attack on Toropets, the Ukrainians claimed, resulted in the destruction of a depot storing Iskander tactical missiles, as well as aerial glide bombs and artillery munition. The strike caused massive explosions, visible for miles.
And in July the Ukrainians say they hit an oil refinery on Russia’s Black Sea coast, causing a major fire there.
But Russian air defenses thwart many Ukrainian drone attacks. The GUR’s success rate, the unit tells CNN, could be transformed from 50% to 95% if the United States gave permission to use Western weapons in attacks on Russian soil.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned, however, that Moscow would consider any assault on it supported by a nuclear power to be a joint attack, singling out a mass launching of drones as one potential example.
Vector said many of Russia’s airfields, the origin-point of many of the air raids it conducts against Ukraine, are out of range. His drones, while highly effective, are not always that efficient – swarms of them are required to ensure their targets are hit. “Of course, we can send the UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), and we destroyed many places. But it’s not enough,” Vector says.
Inside the mission
Serge and Vector have been leading their unit’s attempts to hurt Putin at home.
Regardless of targets, their missions follow a rigid set of operating procedures that include meetings at various locations across Ukraine.
In an underground office with dark brown, seemingly never-ending Soviet corridors, Serge sits across from Vector in a white-walled room. No pictures hang on the wall, even the whiteboard remains blank. The meeting is to the point.
“There will be about 12 drones,” Serge says to Vector, who has a map in front of him detailing the target and range of the Russian air defense and electronic warfare systems. They then agree the target approach time of around 3 am and the launch intervals for the drones.
Vector scribbles two notes before standing abruptly and saying, “Everything is clear. Ready to complete the task.”
Outside on the street, Vector climbs into his vehicle. He beckons the Global Trend Journal team to follow him, phones turned off.
As dusk draws in, the convoy pulls into a compound, articulated lorries lined up. A tiny room with a desk and two sets of bunk beds serves as the only light source for miles around.
Men dressed in black, balaclavas over their faces, wait to hear their orders. Vector delivers a short brief, adding that this mission will also involve other units. He orders his men to start preparing the routes and hands over a small USB key containing the information for the mission ahead.
“Any questions?” he asks. “None? Okay. Let’s get working.”
As his men scatter across the compound, Vector explains that the planning phase of these missions is critical. “Planning is maybe 60% part of the success, everything depends on the planning,” he tells CNN.
He points to the quality of Russia’s air defenses, especially over the past 12 months. “We’re successful guys and we find the windows,” he says, but it’s a challenge.
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