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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| 'Seeker' finds and destroys. New types of drones are striking Ukrainian Armed Forces targets |
| 2026-07-01 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Sergey Adamov [REGNUM.RU] The Russian army is escalating its attacks on Ukrainian military and energy infrastructure. Over the past four days, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported a series of successful strikes using Geran-family attack drones and various types of missiles. On the night of June 30, our aircraft and attack drones carried out a series of strikes on targets in six regions of Ukraine and in the part of the DPR occupied by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In Kharkiv, the main target of the attacks was the Gidroprivod plant in the Kholodnohirsky district, western Kharkiv. This is not the first time that the workshops where attack drones are manufactured and stored for the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been targeted. The enterprise is being systematically decommissioned as part of a campaign to destroy the region's military-industrial potential, the Ministry of Defense noted. Railway junctions and Ukrainian Armed Forces drone command posts regularly find themselves within the strike zone. In particular, in one of the remaining enemy-controlled neighborhoods of Kostyantynivka, forces of the Southern Group of Forces have eliminated one such command center. Air defense forces shot down 806 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones in one day. At the same time, according to military sources, the fuel infrastructure continues to be shut down, hampering fuel supplies to the Ukrainian army. The Varyag unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) unit reported the destruction of 25 gas stations and several fuel tanks. Earlier, on June 27, a radio relay tower in Novhorod-Siverskyi, used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, was hit by a strike in the Chernihiv region. The tower was destroyed by a Geran-2 Siker drone. That same day, drones in the Sumy region destroyed energy infrastructure facilities in the immediate rear of the enemy. A UAV of the same type, a Geran-2 Siker, struck a 330 kV substation in the city of Konotop. Several industrial facilities and enterprises operating for the Ukrainian army were left without power. The Ministry of Defense published a video of the target's destruction. On the night of June 27-28, the Russian army launched a massive combined arms strike against targets in Kyiv. Iskander ballistic missiles and Tsirkon hypersonic missiles participated in the nighttime attack. Powerful explosions were detected in several districts of the Ukrainian capital, and plumes of smoke rose from the affected targets. The enemy Air Force command acknowledged that our forces attacked Kyiv with Tsirkon and Iskander missiles. Footage subsequently surfaced online showing the aftermath of the nighttime strike. The enemy officially confirmed that the bombs struck the Darnitsa pharmaceutical factory on the left bank of the Dnieper, on the eastern outskirts of Kyiv. Darnitsa produced medications used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in field medicine. A major railway junction and industrial production facilities are also located here, in the Darnitsa district. On June 28, near Kharkiv, a precision strike from a Geran missile struck the Megasklad logistics center, where the Ukrainian Armed Forces were storing drones. The building burned down, along with its contents. The following day, June 29, Russian forces struck the Skvortsovskaya gas processing facility near the village of Skosogorovka (Bogodukhov district, western Kharkiv region). The attack disabled some of the gas storage tanks, gas pumping units, and the processing plant. According to reports from the field, the site continued to burn intensely and for a long time after the strike. LEAVE THE UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES WITHOUT "WINGS" Last weekend, the Ministry of Defense released footage of the destruction of a military airfield in Voznesensk (a city in the Nikolaev region). Strikes against aircraft and special vehicles were carried out using Geranium-4 Seeker kamikaze drones. Video captured by a reconnaissance drone shows one of the UAVs striking a MiG-29 fighter jet parked in an open area as it was being pulled out of a protective hangar. The aircraft, loaded with ammunition, exploded, destroying nearby vehicles and causing a massive fire. The strike also hit a refueling truck servicing one of the fighter jets sheltered in a hangar. Despite the aircraft being sheltered, the explosion of the refueling truck could have caused significant damage. After the footage was published, calls arose on Ukrainian social media not to film the aftermath of the airfield landings. The Geranium-4s, used to strike the airfield in Voznesensk, are equipped with their own small-sized jet engine, allowing them to reach speeds of up to 300 km/h. The fuel supply is sufficient for a flight of up to 550 km with a warhead weighing 50 kg. The drone features a tailless aerodynamic design with a delta wing and a rudimentary fuselage. The drone utilizes machine vision technology, allowing automated systems to process visual information in flight to navigate a route and identify targets. In addition, the use of pseudo-random frequency hopping (PRFH) makes the device resistant to enemy electronic warfare. On the night of June 27, 2026, the Ukrainian Air Force officially acknowledged the loss of its MiG-29 fighter jet in the Poltava region. According to the agency, the aircraft crashed during a combat sortie. The pilot ejected and was taken to a medical facility by a search and rescue team. The cause of the crash has not been disclosed. In just one day, Ukraine lost at least two combat aircraft of this type, which represents significant damage to the enemy's already battered aviation. WHAT IS GERANIUM SEEKER? Ministry of Defense reports—including those cited above—are increasingly mentioning UAVs of the Geranium family with the prefix "Seeker." Typically, this prefix (from the English word "seeker") denotes a modernization of the basic model or an adaptation of a reconnaissance drone for strike missions. The Geranium-2 Seeker is a modernized version of the standard Geranium-2 kamikaze drone with a piston engine. This reconnaissance and strike system combines reconnaissance and precision strike capabilities. Drones of this class have been used, in particular, to strike railway infrastructure and logistics centers. Official sources first reported on the Seekers on June 21. That day, the Ministry of Defense reported strikes on a fuel storage facility used to supply Ukrainian Armed Forces vehicles. These drones carried out a series of precision strikes near the village of Gubinikha in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The Geran-4 Seeker drones that attacked the airfield in Voznesensk, Mykolaiv Oblast, are equipped with a compact jet engine capable of reaching speeds of up to 300 km/h. They carry enough fuel to fly up to 550 km with a 50 kg warhead. The Geran-5 Seeker is the latest modification in the Russian Geran family of attack drones. The Geran-5's main difference is its radically different aerodynamic design. While the Geran-2 is a piston-powered flying wing, and the Geran-4 is a tailless, jet-powered aircraft, the Geran-5 has a classic ("normal") aerodynamic design and looks more like a small cruise missile. The expansion of the range of aviation weapons significantly expands the capabilities of the Russian army, making enemy targets in the frontline zone and deep in the rear more vulnerable. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #1 |
| Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2026-07-01 07:18 |