World

In another blow to Russia, European countries have agreed to funnel the profits generated by the aggressor state’s frozen assets into Ukraine.

Knewz.com has learned that the decision will result in a windfall of $3.2 billion flowing into Volodymyr Zelensky’s coffers annually for the foreseeable future.

As a testimony to its resolve, the European Union has already placed the first deposit in motion.

The Spaniard, Josep Borrell Fontelles, who serves as a High Representative of the Union for Europe’s Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, stated that he had “updated EU Ministers on progress towards the first transfer of 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) expected at the beginning of August.”

Europe and its allies have frozen $320 billion in Russian assets since the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion in 2022, two-thirds of which are being held by Belgium’s financial market infrastructure services provider, Euroclear.

Some allies like the United States have suggested that the host countries seize all Russian assets outright but the European Union’s members declined for fear of triggering a slew of legal implications.

The U.S. has already passed a bill permitting the seizure of Russian bank assets in the country and their transfer to Ukraine.

The so-named REPO (Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity for Ukrainians)  Act stated:

“The President may seize, confiscate, transfer, or vest any Russian aggressor state sovereign assets, in whole or in part, and including any interest or interests in such assets, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States for the purpose of transferring those funds to Ukraine.”

Not oblivious to the effect the decision on Moscow, Borrell observed:

“The Russians will not be very happy.”

As a testament to the latter, Putin has since threatened similar actions against Western assets, though the impact will be mitigated by the declining foreign economic interest in his country.

Russian Security Council Chairman and former president, Dmitry Medvedev, admitted as much in a Telegram tirade: 

“The reason is clear – we do not have a significant amount of American state property, including money, rights, and other US assets.”  

Not deterred, Putin has since indicated that the autocracy plans to attack private investors’ cash instead.

“Therefore, the answer can only be asymmetrical. It is not a fact that it will be any less painful.” 

“We are talking about the foreclosure, for example by a court decision, on the property of private individuals located in the jurisdiction of Russia (money, real estate, and movable property in kind, property rights),” said Medvedev mirroring his employer’s prospective line of attack.

“Yes, this is a complex story, since these individuals usually acted as investors in the Russian economy,” the pro-war blowhard said.

“And we guaranteed them the inviolability of their private property rights. But the unexpected happened – their state declared a hybrid war on us. This must be answered.”

Open-source research conducted by independent media outlets in Russia has shown that Vladimir Putin has lost 1,518 troops since early July 2024.

A report published on July 5 mentioned that the body count on the Russian side has reached 120,000 since the beginning of the Ukraine war, Knewz.com has learned.

It should be noted that this number is based on the estimates provided by the Russian Probate Registry, which also stated that around 39,000 troops died in the period between March 15, 2024, and July 5, 2024.

On the other hand, the officially released list of names states that 59,725 identified members of the Russian armed forces, including 3,749 officers, have died in the war until July 16.

Around 20% of the identified Russian troops who died so far, amounting to 11,933 lives, were pardoned inmates who were made to join the armed forces. Approximately 27 of them were Officer-class soldiers.

The research conducted by the independent Russian media outlet Mediazona and the Russian service of BBC News found that pardoned inmates formed the majority of reported losses in the Ukraine war by March 2023.

However, the use of inmates in the armed forces has significantly reduced following the capture of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, according to reports.

The research further found that Russia has lost over 10,000 troops in the past six months, with reports attributing the deaths to the failed renewed Russian offensive, especially on the Kharkiv front.

The majority of the fallen Russian soldiers were in the age group of 21 to 23 before the integration of volunteers, mobilized soldiers, and prisoners into the armed forces.

Following the inclusion, the average age of death was raised to 25 for mobilized troops and around 30 to 35 for volunteer troops.

It is worth noting that Russia experienced the “deadliest week of war” earlier in June 2024, with reports indicating that Putin lost nearly 1,300 troops and a significant amount of war equipment in a single day.

“The Ministry of Defense in Ukraine wrote in a recent statement that Volodymyr Zelensky‘s forces claimed the lives of 1,290 Russian soldiers in the past 24 hours, recording the highest number of monthly Russian casualties and artillery losses,” Knewz.com reported at the time.

In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, Ukraine also claimed to have achieved the record for the highest number of Russian artillery systems destroyed in May 2024.

“1160 Russian artillery systems were destroyed in May. It’s the biggest number of artillery losses in two years of the war. And Ukrainian warriors continue to transform Russian weapons into scrap metal,” the statement read.

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine recently posted its own estimate of Russian losses until July 23 – based on reports from the General Staff of the Armed Forces – and offered a number in stark contrast with the losses estimated by the Russian Probate Registry.

The Ministry wrote on X that Russia has lost a total of 568,980 soldiers and 81,479 war elements, including tanks, artillery, drones, warships, special equipment, and so on, in the Ukraine war so far.

The previous update from the Ministry estimated the losses at 567,760, meaning Russia lost 1,220 troops in a single day, according to the claims made by Ukraine.

Ukraine’s drone forces have reported an attack on Russia’s largest Black Sea oil refinery deep inside enemy territory.

Knewz.com has learned that the strike on the Krasnodar facility – in a sheltered bay on the Black Sea  – was punctuated by a tell-tale ball of fire and ensuing smoke.

Russia confirmed the attack with the regional authority saying:

“As a result of the fall of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) debris, the infrastructure of the oil refinery in Tuapse was damaged.” 

“Specialists are extinguishing the fire on an area of ​​50 square meters. Thirty-one units of equipment and 91 people are working on the spot,” one of its social media accounts read.

Footage released by a local outlet depicted a drone flying over an industrial area to the sound of small arms fire—presumably that of Russian security forces trying to shoot it down.

It eventually disappeared and an explosion occurred at the center of the complex.

Whether it was the attempts at eliminating the UAV that were successful, or if it reached its final resting place at the behest of its remote-controlling pilot, is unknown. 

Additional reports indicated two more blasts at the refinery three hours later.

Notably, the Tuapse facility is the only oil refinery in Russia with access to a seaport and produces 12 million tons of oil annually—90% of which is exported.

Russia, which claims to have shot down the attacking drone, claims it eliminated an additional 75 over land, the Azov Sea, and the Black Sea.

It has also been alleged that Ukraine attacked a ferry at the Port of Kavkaz in the Kerch strait separating Sevastopol from the eastern Krasnodar peninsula.

As a result, the traffic crossing the strait was halted.

Krasnodar’s governor, Veniamin Kondratyev, weighed in saying: “Emergency services are on the scene. The fire is localized, there is no danger of its spreading.”

“Unfortunately, there are injured and one killed among crew members and port employees.”

Russia’s defense ministry is also reported to have commented on the matter claiming that its air defenses in the area had shot down 21 drones.

The last time Ukraine bombarded the Black Sea refinery was in January 2024. The ensuing damage then was extensive with footage depicting numerous columns of smoke escaping from the complex.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying: 

“An oil refinery in Tuapse, Russia, has become another target of the SBU. Our sources confirm that it was SBU drones that attacked this important facility [of] the enemy.”

“After two powerful explosions last night, a large-scale fire broke out there. The primary oil processing unit, namely the vacuum and atmospheric columns, was damaged.”

The Ukrainian military division also warned that the attack was one of many to come:  “There will be many surprises to come, the systematic work continues,” it said via the Kyiv Post.

South Africa’s “Apartheid killer’ who murdered no less than 39 black and mixed race people over three years in the 1980s, claims that his killings were sanctioned by the police.

Knewz.com has learned that Van Schoor, who was a security guard at the time, tracked down intruders and trespassers who were black or mixed race and shot them to death—actions that the Eastern Cape Community of East London was not only aware of but encouraged.

As a testimony to his claim, he reported every person he killed between the years of 1986 and 1989 to the police himself with no ramifications.

“Every officer in East London knew what was going on… all the police officers knew,” the 73-year-old said.

“Not once did anybody say ‘Hey Louis, you’re on the borderline or you should cool it or whatever’… they all knew what was happening.”

His job at the time was to protect predominantly white-owned businesses that comprised restaurants, shops, factories, and schools. He claims that every one of the individuals he caught breaking into the premises was a criminal.

Although he admitted to getting a rush out of killing people, he still claimed he was only doing his job.

“I was barefoot. It’s quiet. You don’t have your shoes squeaking on tiles and stuff.” 

“If somebody breaks in, the adrenaline gives off an odor. And you can pick that up,” said the former cop who worked in the “attack dog” division.

The Apartheid regime, at the time, permitted the use of deadly force on intruders who resisted arrest or tried to flee—and this is how Van Schoor justified his actions.

Those who survived a brush with him, however, indicated otherwise.

One of his victims (14 years old at the time) who preferred to remain anonymous claimed that when Van Schoor caught him, he stood him up against a wall and shot him several times.

He fell to the floor. Van Schoor told him to stand up and when he was unable to, Van Schoor kicked him in the mouth, picked him up, propped him against a table, and shot him again.

To rack up the noted body count (which some say was closer to 100), he sometimes killed more than one person per night. 

His actions made him a bogeyman figure among the local black community where he fearfully was referred to as “whiskers” in the indigenous Xhosa language.

His homicidal tenure would grind to a halt when the post-apartheid president-to-be, Nelson Mandela was released from jail. 

Increasing pressure led to his arrest and a judge found that 32 of the killings were “justifiable” and Van Schoor was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

According to Isa Jacobson, a local journalist who has been investigating the Van Schoor case for two decades, the then-state-aligned killer’s victims “were intruders who were, in a lot of cases, pretty desperate. Digging through bins, maybe stealing some food… petty criminals.”

According to a report by BBC News, Van Schoor, however, has no regrets.

“I honestly don’t know how many I shot. Some say over 100, some say 40… Let’s say for argument’s sake I shot 50 people,” 

“I don’t feel any guilt,” said van Schoor who also claims he is not racist. “I’ve got no remorse inside.”

Igor Sychev, a benefactor of the late Alexei Navalny – who opposed Vladimir Putin and died in an Arctic jail – claims he fears an impending fourth assassination attempt. 

Knewz.com has learned that the Russian national, now in exile after three car crashes in his home country following a fallout with his former employer (PhosAgro), regularly receives death threats.

The 49-year-old father of two who lives in Latvia, claims he received a “poke” on Facebook from a strange account. When he clicked on it he was faced with a profile picture of the late Navalny and text that read: “I can’t breathe. I miss you.”

Sychev – who left Russia after the near-fatal car accidents, including one where a wheel came off and the brakes failed – claims that he fears another “more successful” attempt on his life.

“The threats, they’re like a never-ending stream,” he said, and indicated that the one on Facebook “is just one of the examples.”

“If you talk about emails and various messages, they come almost on a daily basis, or at least a few times a week,” he continued.

“Because I’ve been receiving those threats for many years, I kind of got used to living with them and understanding that I can be killed at any moment.”

“It’s probably similar to how soldiers feel on the front lines knowing they can die at any instance.”

“The second aspect is they already attempted it once,” he said. “Obviously if it can happen again, I’m afraid it will be more successful.”

He went on to speak of another ominous instance that originated in the ether. In June 2024, he visited London to meet a man who reached out to him on LinkedIn.

Said individual claimed that he was a mediator from the Russian-based PhosAgro, whom he (Sychev) had taken to court after accusing the company of not paying him. 

Sychev initially interpreted the development as positive.

However, during the meeting, the conversation steered toward Sychev’s residence with the man asking him in which country he felt safest.

This set the alarm bells ringing and Sychev refused to take the bait. As a result, the meeting ended on a negative note with the man reaching out to the expat on LinkedIn afterwards, saying: 

“You have a lot to learn about the brave, foolish, and eccentric English, Igor!”

“I will not repeat my last message, I will hope that someday you understand its truth and sincerity.”

Sychev, who brought the matter to the attention of the London police, later complained that they failed to follow through on their promises to investigate the matter.

Before this, Sychev took the spotlight in May 2023. At the time it was reported that he received an email warning of an impending threat on his life.

“Igor, I wish to bring your attention to the below: Order to kill you. By poison to make it look like suicide, or a freak fall to make it look like an accident.”

According to the UK Sun, the matter was escalated to the police who said: “We have had a report of malicious communications. We treat any such allegations seriously.”

There are no known developments in the investigation.

South Korea has upped the ante in the ongoing tit-for-tat hybrid war with its northern neighbor.

Knewz.com has learned that in response to the parasite, trash, and soil-bearing balloons, the southern peninsula state is blasting music and news at its northern neighbor using loudspeakers.

The sounds emanating from the said giant sound systems comprise K-pop (a local contemporary genre of music) along with South Korean news bulletins—both of which have been banned by the Kim Jong Un regime.

Announcing the decision in the press, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said: “As we have warned numerous times, we will conduct loudspeaker broadcasts in full-scale at all fronts starting from 1 PM.”

True to its word, the Asian democracy played the speakers for four days in a row from July 17 to 21.

During one of the broadcasts, the JCS indicated that the speakers had been on since 6 AM and were scheduled to be turned off at 10 PM.

“The North Korean military’s tension-escalating acts in front-line areas may lead it to pay a fatal price and we sternly warn that all responsibility for this situation lies with the North Korean regime,” the JCS warned.

This move follows North Korea’s distribution of nearly 2,000 garbage-carrying balloons over South Korea in nine separate instances—1,500 of which were sent since June 2024.

One ensuing examination revealed that they carried soil with “roundworms, whipworms and threadworms,” and damaged “Western clothing”.

In another instance reported on May 29, 2024, the bombardment was preceded by a warning from a Kim military spokesperson.

Knewz.com reported that Kim Kang Il, a deputy minister from the North Korean military cabinet said: 

“Mounds of wastepaper and filth will soon be scattered over the border areas and the interior of the ROK [South Korea] and it will directly experience how much effort is required to remove them.”

Notably, defectors from the reclusive northern state and anti-Kim advocates have been blamed for provoking the trashy assaults after they sent balloons with democratic propaganda northwards.

This drew fury from various Kim blowhards including the dictator’s sister, Kim Yo-jong.

“We give the scum a stern warning again. They should be ready for paying a gruesome and dear price,” she said, referring to South Korea.

It is not the first time the latter has resorted to loudspeakers to get their message across. 

Reports indicate that the southern country, which has a total of 11 loudspeaker systems along its border, employed this tactic as early as 2005.

It refrained from it for eleven years thereafter until relations between the two countries deteriorated and resumed the practice again in 2016.

According to the Yonhap News Agency, the most recent continuation of this tactic followed a forty-day hiatus, which was ended by a new wave of trash balloons.

NASA‘s Curiosity Rover has recently made a “groundbreaking” discovery – quite literally – on the surface of Mars, as it found yellow crystals made of pure sulfur inside a cracked open rock.

Knewz.com has learned that while the rover is exploring a sulfate-rich region of the Red Planet, the occurrence of pure sulfur on the Martian surface was previously unheard of.

The Curiosity Rover made the discovery when it cracked open a rock while driving over it on May 30, during an investigation into a region known as the Gediz Vallis channel, a winding groove that appears to have been created 3 billion years ago by a mix of flowing water and debris.

The crushed rock with the “mind-blowing” find appeared in a picture of the landscape captured by the rover.

NASA stated in a press release that a rock with pure sulfur crystals inside can form “in only a narrow range of conditions that scientists haven’t associated with the history of this location.”

“And Curiosity found a lot of it — an entire field of bright rocks that look similar to the one the rover crushed.”

Notably, the Curiosity Rover had already found sulfates – a kind of salt that contains sulfur and is left behind when water evaporates – on the surface of Mars, especially in the Gediz Vallis channel region.

The rover had also found gypsum, or calcium sulfate, in the cracks of the Martian surface left behind by the ancient groundwater network.

However, the discovery of pure sulfur on Mars is not something Curiosity scientists had anticipated.

Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the project scientist of the Curiosity Rover, said in a statement via the press release, “Finding a field of stones made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert.”

“It shouldn’t be there, so now we have to explain it. Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting.”

Briony Horgan, co-investigator on the Perseverance rover mission and professor of planetary science at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, also commented on the Curiosity Rover’ find in a statement to CNN:

“My jaw dropped when I saw the image of the sulfur… Pure elemental sulfur is a very weird finding because on Earth we mostly find it in places like hydrothermal vents. Think Yellowstone! So it’s a big mystery to me as to how this rock formed in Mt. Sharp [the 3-mile tall Martian mountain where the Gediz Vallis channel is located].”

It is worth noting that pure sulfur is naturally formed on Earth as a result of volcanic processes and can usually be found in natural hot or cold springs.

Curiosity scientists have been trying to further analyze and study the rocks found in the Gediz Vallis channel and finally got their chance on June 18.

While most of the rocks found in the region are small and brittle, they found one big enough to be sampled with the powerful drill at the end of the rover’s 7-foot robotic arm.

The large rock has been nicknamed “Mammoth Lakes,” and according to Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, an analysis of the rock’s dust has revealed a larger variety of minerals than ever seen before during the mission.

The Curiosity Rover is currently in the process of carrying out further investigation in the Gediz Vallis channel, according to NASA’s press release.

Conservationist Paul Watson, known for his work with Greenpeace, the founding of Sea Shepherd, and more recently Neptune Pirates, has been taken into police custody in Denmark.

Knewz.com has learned that the 73-year-old was at Nuuk Harbor in Greenland aboard his ship, John Paul DeJoria, when a tactical law-enforcement team boarded it with an international warrant for his arrest.

The warrant, known as a Red Notice, was reissued by Japan allegedly in secret so that it would not deter Watson from his plans to make his presence felt by yet another of its whaling ships, the Kangei Maru.

The ship’s operations manager, Locky MacLean, recounted the arrest, saying: “We were immediately boarded by a SWAT team and … police who wasted no time in cuffing Paul Watson, our founder, and arresting him on a decades old Red Notice at the request of Japan.” 

Footage released to the press depicted the Danish police leading the activist off the vessel into a waiting vehicle.

Rob Read, Chief of the United Kingdom’s Neptune Pirates operations, shared concerns from many of Watson’s followers about the potential impact of the legal action on the septuagenarian.

“Paul could face 15 years in prison, likely a life sentence for him. [It was] a total ambush by Japan using an unpublished Interpol warrant newly submitted in March this year.”

“The Red Notice had disappeared a few months ago. We were surprised because it could mean that it had been erased or made confidential.” 

“We understand now that Japan made it confidential to lure Paul into a false sense of security. We implore the Danish government to release Captain Watson and not entertain this politically-motivated request.”

As a nod to Read’s remark about the Red Notice, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF) has released a statement on Facebook saying: 

“This development comes as a surprise since the Foundation’s lawyers had reported that the Red Notice had been withdrawn. However, it appears that Japan had made the notice confidential to facilitate Paul’s travel for the purpose of making an arrest.”

“Although Japan has operated in violation of the ICJ (International Court of Justice) ruling for several years, they ceased Antarctic high-seas whaling in 2016 and now only hunt whales within their territorial waters.”

“CPWF suspects that Japan intends to resume high-seas whaling in the Southern Ocean and North Pacific by 2025, and believes the reactivation of the Red Notice against Captain Watson is politically motivated, coinciding with the launch of the new factory ship,” the statement said.

The Kangei Maru, also referred to as “the mothership of whaling,” is a 370-foot, 9,300-ton vessel launched in June 2024.

It is even bigger than its predecessor, the retired Nisshin Maru, which had many brushes with marine conservation activists and received the moniker “floating slaughterhouse”.

 According to a report by CNN News, the latest supplement to Japan’s whaling efforts is said to have a range of 8,000 miles and is capable of staying at sea for 60 days at a time leading to speculations that the ship owner, Kyodo Senpaku, plans on whaling a lot further abroad than just Japan’s territorial waters. 

Senpaku has since rubbished the speculations.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claims that it foiled a terrorist attack on a bus station and arrested one suspect in connection with the alleged plot.

Knewz.com has learned that the agency has since released footage of the arrest and a confession from the detainee.

Said footage, released to a state-owned media agency, depicts a bearded man making a purchase at a roadside vendor selling coils of cable and building equipment.

The footage then skips to the individual with his face blurred walking purposefully through a residential area with two plastic bags in his hands.

Thereafter, he can be seen photographing what is said to be a bus schedule inside a building using his cellphone before the video skips to him opening the twin doors of what appears to be a garage.

He is then violently tackled to the ground by camo-clad individuals and manhandled into an unmarked utility vehicle.

The video then shows him making a confession saying: “I joined the Islamic State, swore allegiance to ISIS, and planned to commit a terrorist act on its orders.”

The FSB has since also released a statement of its own.

“A terrorist act planned by a member of an international terrorist organization (ITO) banned in Russia, a native of one of the countries of the Central Asian region, was prevented in Stavropol Krai,” the Russian agency said.

“The terrorist swore allegiance to the head of the ITO and was preparing an attack on the transport infrastructure facilities of the city of Yessentuki using a homemade explosive device.”

It further stated that the individual “conducted reconnaissance of the city’s bus station, studied the time of mass gatherings of people and selected a place to plant the homemade explosive device, acquired the components, chemicals and striking elements necessary for its manufacture, which he placed in a pre-equipped hiding place in a rented garage.”

Russia’s state news agency, TASS, noted the detainee planned on escaping to Syria where he was to join the ranks of a terrorist organization after the attack had been executed.

Moscow is still reeling from the most recent attack on the Crocus City Hall where no less than 130 people died. 

The perpetrators were alleged to have been caught and “detained”.

A report by Knewz.com at the time quoted Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, saying: 

“All four direct perpetrators of the terrorist attack, all those who shot and killed people, were found and detained…”

“They tried to hide and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them from the Ukrainian side to cross the state border.”

The attack was said to be the largest since the Beslan School Siege in 2004 when disgruntled Chechen rebels took 1,100 hostage for three days.

The Putin administration opted for the sledgehammer over the scalpel and sent his troops in. The result was 334 deaths, 186 of whom were children.

Newly released footage shows a Ukrainian First Person View (FPV) drone destroying a Russian 2S4 Tyulpan mortar—currently the world’s largest mortar system.

Knewz.com has learned that the mortar was destroyed during a skirmish between Russian forces and the Third Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The Brigade reported that Ukrainian troops were pushing hard on enemy positions in Kharkiv when Russian soldiers attempted to make a breakthrough by using the Russian 2S4 Tyulpan mortar to attack from the flanks.

However, they were unsuccessful in the strategy as a Ukrainian FPV drone managed to destroy the “powerful target.”

The Ukrainian Third Assault Brigade shared footage captured by the drone on Telegram with the caption, “The enemy is advancing on the flanks in the Kharkiv region: video of the defeat of the Tyulpan mortar!”

“Fighters took off in support and hit a super-powerful target—a mortar designed to destroy the most fortified fortifications and entire buildings,” the Brigade wrote in the report.

The footage showed the drone locating and identifying the 2S4 Tyulpan mortar and homing in straight towards it. The video also shows the moment the powerful mortar was destroyed, captured from a distance by another drone.

The Russian 2S4 Tyulpan self-propelled mortar – called the M-175 “Tulip” by NATO – is considered the most powerful mortar system in the world.

The 27.5-ton war machine has a firing range of 6 miles for conventional mortar rounds and 12.1 miles for rocket-assisted rounds.

Developed in the early 1970s by Uraltransmash Works, the Russian 2S4 Tyulpan packs quite a punch as its 240-mm mortar rounds contain over 70 pounds of explosives.

In contrast, standard 152-mm artillery rounds contain around 16.5 pounds of explosives. Furthermore, it shoots the projectiles in a high trajectory, allowing it to fire from behind cover which is especially advantageous in urban warfare.

Priced at around $800,000, the 2S4 Tyulpan self-propelled mortar is an expensive piece of war machinery.

It seems Ukrainian FPV drones have already set a successful track record of blowing up high-value Russian targets, as they have been responsible for putting several Russian tanks out of commission over the past few weeks.

Speaking of how central drones are to the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Dmytro Lysenko, a drone pilot with the 109th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, said in a statement:

“A shell can fly and miss, and that’s it. But a drone pilot aims and will be very accurate when they drop an explosive.”

It is worth noting that this is not the first time Ukrainian forces have destroyed a Russian 2S4 Tyulpan mortar.

It was previously reported that Ukraine had destroyed another one of the powerful mortars in June 2024 using an American-made M12 HIMARS multiple-launch missile system.

In December 2022, during the first year of the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian military used drones to destroy one of the first Russian heavy mortars deployed in the Ukraine war.

Footage of the trike was shared on Instagram at the time by a Ukrainian soldier named Alex Guc.