Russia

Shaheds, Lancets, fiber-optic FPVs and the counter-drone scramble — Russia’s drone war, tracked.

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Beats covered

Reporters on beat

Sep 28

Last updated

Fuel storage tanks burning at a Russian oil depot after a Ukrainian drone strike, with firefighters working in the snow

Ukraine

Ukraine's Drones Broke The Diesel Market. Trump Wants Them Stopped.

European gasoil margins hit about $94 over Brent as Ukrainian drones cut Russian refining to a 24-year low. US diesel just passed $6 a gallon.

Haye KestelooSep 15

View from a Russian drone camera looking down on a paved road in Kherson, with pedestrians walking along it and a recording overlay showing REC, 1.5x zoom and a running timer

Legal

Yale Expert: Civilian Drone Builders Risk Losing Legal Protection

Two drone experts warn that civilians who build and move attack drones may forfeit noncombatant status, and the texts deciding it date to 2009.

Haye KestelooSep 15

Tail section of a crashed drone lying on a sandy beach beside the water

Counter-Drone

NATO Jets Down a Drone Over Lithuania, Days After Chasing Birds

Italian Typhoons shot down a drone over Lithuania early Tuesday, the first ever downed in Lithuanian airspace. Two days earlier, the alert was birds.

Haye KestelooSep 15

Ukrainian FPV strike quadcopter hovering low over a forest track with a payload module on its back, illustrating Anthropic's report on Russian developers using Claude Code to build autonomous kamikaze drone swarm software

Ukraine

Anthropic Catches Russians Using Claude to Code Self-Targeting Drones

Anthropic says a freelance Russian team used Claude Code to build kamikaze drone swarm software that picks targets, including people, with no human veto.

Haye KestelooSep 12

Close-up of a person in a plaid shirt holding an olive-green Ukrainian interceptor drone with yellow fins and twin rear rotors

Ukraine

Eric Schmidt Warns Ukraine's Drone Edge Is Gone. He Sells the Fix

Schmidt's Washington Post op-ed says Ukraine's innovation edge is losing to Russian mass. His byline omits Swift Beat, the drone maker he runs.

Haye KestelooSep 11

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the boarding stairs of a Ukrainian government aircraft bearing the Ukraina livery

UKRAINE

Norway's PM Says A Drone Nearly Hit Zelenskyy's Plane. Kyiv Balks

Norway's prime minister says a drone almost hit Zelenskyy's plane leaving Moldova. A source in Zelenskyy's own office calls that account exaggerated.

Haye KestelooSep 9

Leipzig-Halle Airport check-in terminal exterior

Leipzig Drone Bomb

Germany Plans To Let Utilities Fight Off Drones After Leipzig Bomb

Germany plans nine-city counter-drone units and a law letting power and water companies actively fend off drones, five weeks after the Leipzig bomb.

Haye KestelooSep 7

The nose of an Antonov An-124-100M cargo plane on an airport apron, with the words Be Brave Like Kharkiv painted on the fuselage.

Leipzig Drone Bomb

Germany Blames Russia For Leipzig Drone Bomb, Closes Consulate

Germany formally blames Russia for the August 4 explosive drone at Leipzig/Halle Airport and will close the Russian consulate in Bonn on September 18.

Haye KestelooSep 2

Russia

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