Ukraine Ministry of Defense
- Ukraine’s defense ministry shared a video of a solider taking apart a Russian Orlan-10 drone Sunday.
- It shows the camera was a regular Canon and the fuel cap was made out of a bottle top.
- “We even thought of sending this ‘cosmic’ technology to our Western partners,” the soldier said.
Ukraine’s defense ministry shared a video showing a soldier dismantling a Russian military surveillance drone, highlighting a string of surprisingly unsophisticated features.
In a video posted to Twitter on Sunday, a soldier can be seen seen taking apart what the ministry said was an Orlan-10 drone that crashed on Ukrainian soil.
Insider was unable to independently verify when or where the footage was taken.
In the video, the soldier is first seen pointing out that the drone’s camera is a generic handheld Canon DSLR that had its main navigation button glued down to make sure it doesn’t accidentally switch mode.
The soldier then points out that the camera had been secured in place with a strip of adhesive tape.
—ArmyInform (@armyinformcomua) April 10, 2022
The soldier then points out that the cap of the drone’s fuel tank appeared to have been made with the top and lid of a plastic water bottle.
The footage also showed evidence that the drone had been covered in duct tape in several places.
“This is seriously real. Not fake,” the soldier is heard saying, and joking: “We even thought of sending this ‘cosmic’ technology to our Western partners.”
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military said in 2017 that the Orlan-10 costs between five and seven million rubles ($87,000 to $120,000) per unit.
The Orlan-10 usually carries a thermovision camera, photo camera, video camera, radio transmitter, and a retransmitter, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Security Service said in 2014.
Ukraine said it had shot down a number of Russian Orlan-10 drones since Russia’s invasion, which began on February 24.
On April 8, Ukraine’s 24th brigade posted an image of an Orlan drone to Facebook which appeared to also have a part of a water bottle as its primary fuel storage unit.
Russia’s assault on Ukraine has slowed in recent weeks, with Ukraine warning that Russian forces may be preparing for a new all-out assault on the eastern Donbas region.
Speaking to the German newspaper Bild, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the worst was yet to come.
“It could be a big war in Donbas — like the world has not seen in hundreds of years,” he said. “We will go on defending our country until the end.”
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