Ukraine’s drones hit Russian training site in Zaporizhzhia

Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces carried out a multi-target drone strike deep in Russia’s operational rear in the Zaporizhzhia region, reportedly inflicting heavy losses on three Russian units preparing to rotate to the front lines, according to commander Robert “Madyar” Brovdi.

Ukrainian drone units completed a nocturnal interdiction operation on the night of June 12. The primary objective of the raid was the “Vostochny” military training ground, located in the occupied settlement of Novopetrivka, Zaporizhzhia region, News.Az reports, citing Kyiv Post.

According to Brovdi, the facility was actively housing and training personnel from three notorious Russian military formations, all of which are deployed to fight against Ukrainian forces along the active Huliaipole axis. Among them is the Kamchatka 40th Naval Infantry Brigade, a marine formation that spent over a year spearheading catastrophic, unsuccessful assaults on the fortress city of Vuhledar, depleting the majority of its original combat personnel on the approaches.

The camp also hosted the 1461st Regiment of the 36th Army, which functions as a mobilized infantry regiment drawn primarily from the Republic of Buryatia. Finally, training ground assets included the 1466th Regiment of the 5th Army, a unit consisting of raw recruits from Primorsky Krai.

In 2023, due to extreme pressure from commanders to engage in “meat assaults” in the Zaporizhzhia sector, a Russian company commander shot the regiment’s reconnaissance chief, callsign “Mustang,” at a command post before turning the weapon on himself.

The destruction at the training ground was paired with a wider tactical suppression campaign against Russian air defense and command architecture across the southern theater. Brovdi confirmed that USF drones hunted and destroyed several critical targets during the same operation.

This included a high-value Tor-M2 short-range surface-to-air missile system intercepted and destroyed in Vershyna Druha, Zaporizhzhia region. Concurrently, regional air defense networks were systematically degraded as a ZU-23 anti-aircraft gun emplacement and an active MANPADS crew were neutralized in Novopetrivka.

News.Az 

By Ulviyya Salmanli