Investigators say 13 aircraft were smuggled into the country for an attempted strike
Russian security officers have seized 13 Ukrainian AI-powered drones allegedly smuggled into the country by Kiev’s military intelligence agency for an attack on a military airfield, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday.
The FSB said the planned target was an airfield in Russia’s Rostov Region, where the Ukrainian military intelligence service (HUR) allegedly sought to damage assets and kill personnel.
Each aircraft was designed to carry an improvised explosive device with a yield equivalent to more than 1 kg of TNT and was equipped with an AI-based targeting system intended to overcome electronic countermeasures, according to the FSB.
The man recruited to carry out the attack alerted Russian law enforcement and cooperated with the investigation, allowing FSB officers to deceive the HUR into delivering the drones and transferring an advance payment equal to 20% of the promised fee. His voluntary assistance exempts him from criminal liability, the agency said.
Evidence found during forensic analysis of the drones suggests that their AI model was trained at Ukraine’s State Aviation Museum at Zhuliany Airport in Kiev, the FSB said.
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Investigators described the plot as part of a series of recent Western-backed Ukrainian attacks in Russia that law enforcement has stopped. On Thursday, the FSB reported derailing two separate assassination attempts on senior military officials, one of which would have involved a specialized FPV drone carrying a bomb.
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