UKRAINE is using a gruesome new drone which incinerates enemy troops by showering them with molten metal.
The aircraft carry canisters of thermite — a mixture of aluminium and iron oxide developed over a century ago to weld railway tracks.
Thermite burns so fiercely it ignites anything it touches, is near-impossible to put out and stops burning only once the mixture runs out.
Ukrainian troops deploy drones above Russian soldiers concealed in the forests. They then trigger the canisters remotely, releasing molten metal fragments at temperatures exceeding 2000C onto the enemy positioned below.
Defence industry analyst Nicholas Drummond, a former British Army officer, said: “It is very nasty stuff.
“Using a drone to deliver it is quite innovative.
“I would not have liked to have been on the receiving end.”
While causing severe injuries, thermite drones remain permissible under international regulations as long as they target military entities and not civilians.
According to a Ukrainian military leader, their forces utilize thermite drones to flush out Russian troops from cover, leading them into vulnerable positions for standard weapon assaults.
He claimed that since his unit arrived in the Pokrovsk area of Ukraine, it has killed more than 3,000 Russian soldiers.
The officer, who is in charge of a company known as Dovbush’s Hornets, said: “We used a lot of resources to try and drive them out and destroy them.”
A 2022 Human Rights Watch report on thermite bombs described their “horrific human cost”.
It said: “They can cause damage to muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves, blood vessels, and even bones.”
/UKRAINE
