Ukraine Revealed Its Truck Drone Launcher. Russia Promptly Blew It Up.

Did Ukrainian P.R. help the Russians strike a key capability?

This story was commissioned by Euromaidan Press. Since Substack pays only around a fifth of my bills, I have no choice but to take on a lot of freelance work. I still want my Substack audience to know where to read those freelance stories, however. Hence this excerpt.

On May 30, Ukrainian forces circulated nighttime imagery of a crew launching Fire Point FP-1/2 one-way attack drones from a civilian-style tractor-trailer truck modified to haul at least three of the fixed-wing, rocket-assisted drones.

Four days later on June 3, Russian forces released daytime imagery of a drone strike on one of these Ukrainian truck launchers. The Russian drone scored a direct hit. The Ukrainian truck burned.

It’s not totally clear when the Russian strike took place. That is to say, it’s not clear the Russians knew to look for the Ukrainian truck launcher because of the May imagery. But the apparent sequence of events, a revealing image of a special Ukrainian capability followed by a Russian attack on the same capability, is sure to raise eyebrows.

Did Ukrainian troops unnecessarily give away the details of their truck launcher?

Read the rest at Euromaidan Press.