This is the terrifying moment a Ukrainian ‘flame-throwing drone’ set Russian defences ablaze with incendiary bombs that can reach temperatures of 2,400°C.
Footage taken by another drone shows the flamethrower unit methodically scanning a forest believed to be housing Russian troops, spitting hot thermite downwards.
The expanse of forest can be seen burning rapidly as smoke rises upwards.
The video was posted by Ukraine’s 108th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade with a single word, referencing the dragons from Game of Thrones: “Drakaris.”
Thermite, a mixture of iron and magnesium oxide, can burn at temperatures of up to 2,400°C and, if ignited, can quickly tear through flesh.
Despite its extreme danger, it is not prohibited by any international arms treaty, except against civilian populations.
Footage taken by another drone shows the flamethrower unit methodically scouring a forest believed to be housing Russian troops, spitting hot thermite downwards.
You can see the expanse of forest burning rapidly, with smoke rising upwards.
The video was posted by Ukraine’s 108th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade with a single word, referencing the dragons from Game of Thrones: “Drakaris.”
However, Putin appears to have no qualms about attacking civilians: a grieving Ukrainian mother revealed her devastation at finding the body of her 14-year-old daughter torn apart by missile shrapnel.
Heartbreaking footage captured the moment her mother broke down as she sat metres from her daughter’s shattered body slumped on the bench.
Separate images appeared to show the girl’s head had been shattered by shrapnel, with thick pools of blood spread across the track beneath her seat.
The woman was seen sobbing uncontrollably, her legs twitching as pain took over her body as police and paramedics covered the teenager’s body before it was taken to one of Kharkiv’s many morgues.
“I was only 14 years old… I had my whole life ahead of me,” said the mother, her face distorted by anger and anguish.
The horrific scene, captured by onlookers and shared by officials, underlines the latest brutality Ukrainian citizens are suffering at the hands of the Russian military, which continues to carry out ruthless bombing campaigns in major cities as thousands of children prepare for the first day of school.
The brutality with which Putin’s forces fight is expected to increase as Russia prepares to change its doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons in response to what it sees as “Western escalation” in the war in Ukraine, a senior official said yesterday.
Existing nuclear doctrine, laid out in a decree by President Vladimir Putin in 2020, says Russia can use nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatens the state’s existence.
But some of Moscow’s more hawkish military analysts – not to mention politicians – have urged Putin to lower the threshold for nuclear use in order to “calm” Russia’s enemies in the West.
October 2022: Launch of the Russian nuclear-capable Yars missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome
Soldiers stand next to a Russian RS-24 Yars ballistic missile parked along Tverskaya Street before a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Thursday, May 2, 2024.
Russia is believed to have some 5,800 nuclear warheads, more than 1,500 of which are operational and ready to be deployed, and Putin declared in March that his nation was prepared for the eventuality of nuclear war.
Putin said in June that the doctrine was a “living instrument” that could change depending on world events, and now Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov appears to have confirmed that a new document outlining adjustments is in the works.
“The work is at an advanced stage and there is a clear direction for making adjustments, which are also conditioned by the study and analysis of the experience of the development of the conflict in recent years,” Ryabkov said in comments published yesterday by the Russian news agency TASS.
‘This includes everything related to the course of escalation of our Western opponents in connection with the “special military operation.”‘