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Military operation in Ukraine

Ukraine pays over $1,000 to agent to make drones for attack on Russian airfield

The suspect had spent 20,000 to 25,000 rubles to buy components for four drones from an online marketplace

MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/. The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) transferred over 100,000 rubles ($1,170) to the account of Ruslan Sidiki, a dual Russian-Italian citizen, tasking him with making four drones and an explosive device to carry out an attack on a Russian military airfield and blow up a railroad track, a law enforcement official told TASS.

"Ukrainian intelligence officers transferred over 100,000 rubles to the bank card of a straw man; Sidiki withdrew the money from an ATM and spent it on making four drones and components for an explosive device," he said.

Earlier, investigators established that the suspect had spent 20,000 to 25,000 rubles to buy components for four drones from an online marketplace. Sidiki confessed that the drones he had made were capable of locating targets using GPS navigation and were supposed to explode above an aircraft’s fuel tank. However, Russian warplanes had left the airfield before the attack and three improvised drones blew up over an empty runway, law enforcement officials said. The fourth drone crashed into a tractor.

Sidiki pleaded guilty of blowing up a railroad track in Russia’s Ryazan Region in November 2023 and carrying out a drone attack on an airfield three months prior to that.

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Ukraine Military operation in Ukraine

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