When Russian troops approached an upside-down Ukrainian plane 1,000km from its homeland, something was missing: its pilot.

The E-300 SkyRanger light aircraft had been modified into a drone equipped with a 100kg payload, precision bombing capabilities and, crucially, an onboard remote control system.

Its target? Unknown. But it had been flown remotely by Ukrainian forces, who have been developing such drones to strike targets inside Russia as a way of making up for their lack of long-range missiles.

Early incarnations of Ukrainian long-range drones may have failed – but last month Kyiv had greater success.

This time, its target was clear.

In the dark of night in late January, the 14th regiment of the Ukrainian army launched a major attack on Russia’s Novozybkov oil pumping station, near the border with Belarus.