Bursts of automatic gunfire rang out some hundred meters away. The soldiers chatting on the side of the road connecting Sloviansk and Dobropillia in eastern Ukraine at first paid no attention. But, when a buzzing sound filled the air, someone shouted: "Drone!" A confused voice asked, "Ours or the enemy's?" Soldiers at the nearby Ukrainian military checkpoint had already answered the question with their weapons. The troops ran to take cover under the trees and bushes below. The loitering munition continued its course in the sky, then vanished from sight.
No one was sure what exactly had just flown over them. The nearest Russian positions were 20 kilometers away, a distance considered relatively safe and out of reach for most enemy attack drones.
"The situation is deteriorating rapidly," said Maxime, an officer with the 14th assault brigade, Tchervona Kalyna ("Red Viburnum"), who was not authorized to give his last name. "That drone had wings. It was either a Molniya or a Matka." The officer explained that the latter is a "mother drone," which carries four small loitering munitions, or kamikaze drones. This mother drone doubles the range of Russian attack drones. It is also used for aerial reconnaissance and for guiding its "children" to their targets. "We saw the first Matka 10 months ago. Since then, it's been improved and has spread everywhere. The road to Dobropillia is heavily targeted now. There are destroyed vehicles everywhere, including civilian ones. If the 'children' don't find a high-value target [armored vehicles or artillery], they start to strike anything that's alive."
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