Topics: Donald Trump, Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, World News
Ukraine deployed ‘cheap’ drones to destroy Russian mines hidden beneath two bridges earlier this month, and the devastating result was captured on camera.
The Ukrainian military has confirmed that two bridges near the border of the country’s Kharkiv region were blasted apart on August 23.
CNN reported that these specific structures held strategic importance for the Russian military, serving as major resupply routes.
Both were heavily mined in the event of an enemy advance, Ukraine’s 58th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade confirmed to the outlet.
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It’s these explosives that the army ‘struck’ with its drones, with a representative of the brigade explaining they ‘saw [the] opportunity’ to cause serious damage and simply ‘took it’.
The spokesperson explained the mines had been discovered after some unusual activity had been detected around the bridge.
“It became clear that something was going on there. We couldn’t fly a regular reconnaissance drone under the bridge because the signal would simply disappear, so we flew in with a first-person-view drone equipped with fiber optics,” they stated.
In a jaw-dropping video, drones used for the operation could be seen approaching the bridge, where an uncovered pile of explosives were pictured.
The intense footage ends suddenly when a drone collides with the stash.
Another clip filmed from further away shows the large explosion caused by the drone hitting the hidden mines.
The tech responsible for the attack was relatively cheap UAVs armed with TM-62 anti-tank mines, according to local outlet Militarnyi.
The brigade representative reported to CNN that the drones they used cost between 25,000 and 30,000 Ukrainian hryvnas, or between $600-$725.
Previously, the country’s army had favored Western-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) to blow up bridges in Russia’s Kursk region.
However, these weapons are considered on the pricier side, with CNN reporting that when Germany purchased three HIMARS launchers for Ukraine from the United States last year, it paid $30 million in total.
Russia has yet to comment on the recent destruction.
The two Russian bridges falling at the hands of Ukrainian drones come just months after the army targeted an attack on the 12-mile-long Kerch bridge.
In June, Kyiv’s SBU security service detonated a huge underwater blast targeting the key road and rail passage connecting the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula to Russia, which Putin opened in 2018.
Traffic resumed across the construction just hours after it was struck, as per BBC News.
Ukraine has previously attacked the bridge twice before, once in 2022 and again in 2023.
The latest Ukrainian attack ramps up World War III fears that were fuelled by US President Donald Trump earlier this week.
Speaking to reporters on Monday (August 25), the 79-year-old addressed changing the name of the Department of Defense.
He claimed it could be renamed the ‘the Department of War’, believing the current name is 'too defensive' as he continues to broker a ceasefire between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"On the Department of War, how do you plan to do that? It requires an act of Congress to rename the Defense Department..."
Trump replied: "We're just going to do it. I'm sure Congress will go along if we need that... Defense is too defensive. We want to be defensive, but we want to be offensive, too if we have to be."
Trump met with Putin in Alaska earlier this month.
While no ceasefire agreement was reached, Trump claimed 'we have a very good chance of getting there’.
Afterwards, he hosted European powers, including Zelenskyy and the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, at the White House to advance peace talks.
