AFU Debunked The Myth of The “Invulnerability” of The Russian Drone Zala 421-16E2

We begin today's video with some updates on the military situation in Ukraine. On March 15th, the Ukrainian General Staff of the Armed Forces also posted an update on the military situation in the past 24 hours. According to the statement, the Ukrainian military claimed to have destroyed a command post, two radar stations, an electronic warfare center, and an air defense missile complex of Russia. The Ukrainian General Staff of the Armed Forces accused Russia of conducting three missile attacks on important industrial facilities in the city of Kharkiv. In addition, the Russian military carried out 26 airstrikes and 23 attacks with rocket artillery on targets on Ukrainian territory. According to the Ukrainian Army, the main fronts in the country are still concentrated in the eastern region with hotspots in Lyman, Bakhmet, Avdiivka, Mariinka, and Shakhtarsk. On the Russian side, their military has used massive firepower to pressure Ukrainian forces in the battle for the eastern front in the city of Bakhmet. Ukrainian soldiers fighting in and around Bakhmet have admitted to Kyiv Independent that the Russian tactics are very effective. The Russian forces locate the positions of the Ukrainian army, use heavy firepower to wear them down, and then advance with infantry forces. This tactic has led to heavy losses. Vladislav, a Ukrainian infantryman, said that Russian forces usually appear in groups of around five people at night, but they seem to be wary of close combat. Instead, they use massive firepower to destroy buildings where Ukrainian soldiers take shelter to monitor Russian forces. The Russian attack will continue until the Ukrainian forces have to leave their positions to find another shelter that is better protected. Vladislav said they Russia are also fighting smartly. Some Ukrainian soldiers deployed in Bakhmet said that the Russian forces are divided into small groups of about 10 people and launch fierce waves of attacks. Ukrainian soldiers said that Wagner mercenaries could be among the Russian attacking groups, but it is very difficult to distinguish them because they all wear the same uniform. According to Maxim, a 33-year-old infantryman in Ukraine's 5th Attack Brigade, Russia is also deploying tactics in the southern area of Bakhmet. Using drones, Russia identifies the positions of Ukrainian forces in the area. Then, Russia fires multiple rounds of mortars and artillery, followed by infantry attacks, to surround Ukrainian soldiers. Maxim said that if the drones cannot detect the positions of Ukrainian forces, Russia will send a few soldiers to fire until they hear return fire. Russia's tactics have proven effective and pushed Maxim's unit back 1.5 kilometers during February. Maxim said that his unit sometimes had to move to a position 100-300 M away, especially when nearby units began to withdraw and the defense line began to collapse. Maxim said that Russia's weapons, such as mortars and Soviet-designed rocket launchers, may not be accurate, but they are very effective infantry weapons when used in large numbers. Recently, there is new information about the ongoing conflict. Let's update the direct accounts collected from the battlefield. Ukrainian Bukov LAD-EW system landed Russian Zala 421-16E2 UAV. Servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down the Russian Zala 421-162 drone, which was carrying out a reconnaissance mission. The enemy UAV was shot down by the soldiers of the 58th Motorized Infantry Brigade, named after Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky. The Ukrainian Bukov LAD electronic warfare system was used to neutralize the Russian reconnaissance drone. The 58th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said soldiers landed enemy Zala 421-16E2 UAV. This is the one that was praised in Russia to be invulnerable and invisible. Yet soldiers from the electronic warfare platoon of the engineering support team and their Bukov LAD did not leave the enemy any chance. The soldiers shared that this model of the Russian drone is designed to conduct aerial reconnaissance and surveillance at any time of the day at a distance of up to 35 km with real-time video transmission. Zala 421-162 UAV is designed due to the flying wing scheme and is equipped with a daytime camera with 60x optical zoom and a thermal imaging module. The Russian Zala Aero Company developed the drone. The 58th Brigade emphasized, due to the coordinated operation of the military, this bird has made its last flight. The soldiers strike accurately. The drone can stay in the air for up to four hours. Zala 421-162 UAV lands with a parachute using an air shock absorber, which minimizes the risk of damage during landing. The Ukrainian Proximus LLC developed the Bukov LAD electronic warfare system. The system is designed for early detection of enemy UAVs and complete blocking of data transmission and GPS-slashed LONAS and new versions, also Galileo and Beidou, control channels. A key element of this solution was the ground station, which consists of detection and control modules. The system also has a passive drone detection and direction-finding system. In addition to jamming GPS and GLONASS control channels, the system also generates a series of false signals, which significantly increases the overall performance of defending against enemy drones. The manufacturer stated that the effective range of Bukov LAD reaches 15 to 20 km. Ukraine's military downed Chinese Mijin-5 drone in Donetsk Oblast. The Ukrainian military shot down a modernized and weaponized Chinese-made Mijin-5 drone in Donetsk Oblast, CNN reported on March 16. Ukraine's security service told CNN overnight on March 11 that its agents based on Russian-occupied territories warned the drone had been launched to attack Ukrainian positions. The law enforcement authority alarmed military units stationed near Slovyansk, who then shot down the aircraft with AK-47 assault rifles. The retrofitted unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV, allegedly carried a bomb of about 20 kilograms, which the Ukrainian soldiers later detonated. According to an expert cited by CNN, the bomb was likely made with 3D-printed components. Mijin Limited, based in the Chinese city of Xiamen, confirmed to CNN it was their drone, calling the incident deeply unfortunate. The company previously said it condemned using its commercial products during warfare and stopped selling its merchandise to Russia and Ukraine following Moscow's full-scale invasion. CNN cited some tech bloggers who referred to the Mijin-5 as Alibaba drones as they can be bought for up to $15,000 on Chinese websites, including Alibaba and Taobao. Chris Lincoln-Jones, a retired British Army officer and specialist in drone warfare, told the publication the weaponized drone downed in eastern Ukraine was not equipped with a camera, excluding its use for surveillance. "'This seems to be a very crude, unsophisticated, not very technologically advanced way of conducting operations,' Lincoln-Jones said, adding that the Chinese-made UAV is very cheap in military terms." In January, Moscow installed proxies in Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast claimed they had shot down a Mijin-5 drone launched by the Ukrainian military. Kiev didn't comment on this statement. N. R. Jensen-Jones, an arms and munitions intelligence specialist and director of consultancy Armament Research Services, told CNN there is evidence that both countries have used this technology on the battlefield. Multiple U.S. officials have publicly stated over the past month that China was considering providing lethal aid to Russia, which being later denied. German news outlet Der Spiegel reported on February 24 that Russia's military was discussing the mass production of kamikaze drones with Chinese drone manufacturers. In addition, there is another noteworthy development happening in Russia. A terrifying scene unfolded at a Russian FSB building located just 75 miles away from Ukraine as a warehouse full of ammunition exploded and ignited a massive fire, sending shock waves and flames into the sky. According to Daily Mail, local residents reported hearing explosions before the building, which belongs to the FSB's border patrol section, burst into flames in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don this morning. Video shows the building engulfed in flames as a plume of thick black smoke billows into the air in a built-up area of the city. Eyewitnesses claimed that ammunition detonated in the FSB's warehouse, leaving two people injured, reports Russian newspaper Kommersant. A series of explosions were heard every 10 seconds after the ammunition caught fire, eyewitnesses said. The explosion was very loud, not a pop. We heard one explosion, acquaintances who live closer to the place of the fire claim that there were two, but we clearly heard only one, a witness who lives close to the FSB building told Russian news outlet 161. Another eyewitness said, the building just exploded right in front of my eyes. All windows flew out, the explosion was so mighty. A law enforcement source told news outlet 161. Two people were injured, they were found at the entrance to the warehouse. The source added, ammunition is detonated at the warehouse at intervals of 5 to 10 seconds. Local authorities said they had dispatched emergency services to the area which has been cordoned off, the RIA Novosti news outlet reported. The emergency services said that the fire had expanded to cover 880 square meters of ground. The emergency services said, on the territory of the border department of the FSB, a fire broke out on the second floor of a two-story brick building on an area of 880 square meters. The fire was assigned the second number of complexity. A source earlier claimed that the fire broke out in a one-story detached building which belongs to the FSB. Russia fears that a spate of explosions and fires may be caused by sabotage by people opposed to Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine. As the former head of Russia's main counterintelligence force, the FSB, Putin was responsible for overseeing border guards. Ukraine has admitted to seeking sabotage attacks inside Russia in revenge for Moscow's brutal invasion. There were no reports on incoming missiles or drone attacks. FSB operatives today sought to stop filming of the site of the carnage in Rostov. Major General Kuroly Butinov, Ukrainian intelligence chief, told Forbes last month that Russia was seeing many usual explosions and fires. Much of this is no accident, he said. Something is constantly on fire in Russia. Signaling equipment on railways, it lights up several times a day, on various highways constantly for two to three hours, sometimes for five to six hours, traffic gets suspended. He admitted Kiev is behind some of the sabotage attacks. Clearly it doesn't just happen like this. I would put it this way, money works wonders. The authorities in Rostov said that a wiring fault was responsible for the fire. This is a routine explanation in cases of major fires in the country. In this case, they said the fire spread to ten giant tanks of fuel. Yet firefighters reportedly demanded four means of armor protection because of new explosions. Before ending video, we'll follow up on some encouraging news for Ukraine. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Tuesday that his country may provide Ukraine with MiG-29 fighters within the next four to six weeks, the same day a bipartisan group of U.S. senators sent a letter to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin calling on him to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. The addition of any fighter jets would provide a boost to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been publicly appealing to his Western allies for months to provide his military with aircraft to aid in Ukraine's war against Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces. Though the U.S. has provided Ukraine with powerful weapons like the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, HIMARS, and Javelin missiles, as well as promised M1 Abrams tanks, President Joe Biden has thus far resisted authorizing the shipment of F-16s. An American pilot with 151 combat missions under his belt has declared his readiness to go to Ukraine. American pilot Dan Hampton, who has participated in almost all armed conflicts involving the U.S. in the past two decades, has declared his intention to go to Ukraine. For obvious reasons, the U.S. Air Force pilot is trying to push the idea of supplying Western-made fighters to Ukraine, at least in the long term. The American military pilot stated that if the Ukrainian Air Force is equipped with F-16 fighters, he will join the conflict in Ukraine. Moreover, according to Hampton, it is clear that the delivery of Western combat aircraft to Ukraine could attract a significant number of foreign military pilots to join the Ukrainian Air Force, indicating a possible escalation of the conflict and a potential direct confrontation between Washington, NATO countries, and Moscow. Let's wait and see what new developments there will be in the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the coming days. Don't miss out on the interesting updates from the TDTV Global team. Thanks for your support. 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