MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/. Russia's Phoenix special mine-laying battalion destroyed over 70 Ukrainian army boats with some 250 enemy personnel by remotely mining riverbeds with FPV drones in the Kherson area, battalion commander with the call sign Foks told TASS on Monday.
"We operate in the Kherson direction and lay anti-amphibious assault mines in rivers, about 20-30 mines a day and the enemy assault force is periodically blown up there. We have destroyed over 70 [enemy] boats and generally watercraft, boats and water scooters. We also mine assault force landing areas, i.e. operate against enemy personnel and have already destroyed about 200-250 assault force troops," he said.
The Ukrainian military uses the Ptakhi Madyara group of UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) operators who try to remove discovered mines from rivers, he added.
The Phoenix special mine-laying battalion of the combat engineering brigade from the Southern Military District is an experimental unit within the Russian Armed Forces. Its personnel specialize in upgrading standard munitions, which they use to lay mines remotely with FPV drones. In addition, they employ UAVs as kamikaze drones. The battalion has set up a training center for personnel of various military units.