- 21 minutes ago
At 8:15 a.m., Ukraine launched 12 long-range drones from Sumy toward Russia’s Energia Plant in Yelets, Lipetsk region—a facility linked to the production of critical power components for Iskander-M ballistic missiles and Russian guided bombs.
The mission was far from simple. Eight warhead-carrying Liutyi drones and four decoys faced multiple layers of Russian defenses, including ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, R-330Zh Zhitel electronic warfare systems, Mi-24P attack helicopters, Tor-M2 surface-to-air missiles, and Verba MANPADS.
One by one, Ukrainian drones disappeared. By 11:52 a.m., only one Liutyi appeared to have survived to strike the factory. Russian commanders believed the attack was over.
But four minutes later, an unexpected drone appeared from the northeast—the same aircraft Ukrainian planners had written off as lost more than two hours earlier.
The mission was far from simple. Eight warhead-carrying Liutyi drones and four decoys faced multiple layers of Russian defenses, including ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, R-330Zh Zhitel electronic warfare systems, Mi-24P attack helicopters, Tor-M2 surface-to-air missiles, and Verba MANPADS.
One by one, Ukrainian drones disappeared. By 11:52 a.m., only one Liutyi appeared to have survived to strike the factory. Russian commanders believed the attack was over.
But four minutes later, an unexpected drone appeared from the northeast—the same aircraft Ukrainian planners had written off as lost more than two hours earlier.
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NewsTranscript
00:00At 08.58 hours, local time, 12 Ukrainian UAVs were skimming over recently harvested sunflower fields at an altitude barely
00:09above the tops of a tree line, traveling at roughly 100 miles per hour.
00:14Their target lay nearly 250 miles to the northeast.
00:18The Energia military plant in Yelets, Lepetsk region, where Russia produces Iskander-M missiles and guided bombs, the same weapons
00:27Russia had been raining down on Ukraine repeatedly over the previous several days.
00:31But the UAVs had no idea that ahead of them, on a dirt road running along the edge of a
00:37forest, a Russian mobile fireteam was already waiting.
00:40The twin-barrel anti-aircraft gun mounted on the bed of a pickup truck had been aimed directly at the
00:46gap between two wooded areas that the programmed flight path forced the drones to cross.
00:51At 08.15 hours, at a field launch site in Sumi, 12 engines started one after another, breaking the silence
00:59over the recently harvested farmland.
01:02Each aircraft left its launcher, opened the spacing, and then dispersed along the route toward Lepetsk.
01:07Flying low reduced the amount of time they were exposed to ground-based radar, but it also turned tree lines,
01:13power lines, and uneven terrain into constant hazards.
01:17The four aircraft at the front carried no warheads at all and were therefore lighter than the eight behind them.
01:23They were decoys, intended to draw fire and force Russian air defenses to react before the main strike group appeared.
01:30The eight Lute-E drones behind them carried the warheads intended for Yelets.
01:34From the ground, the two types were almost impossible to distinguish by appearance alone.
01:39For mission planners, losing all four decoys was an acceptable prize.
01:43But if the eight Lute-E were destroyed before reaching deep into Lepetsk, the entire operation would collapse.
01:50On the dirt road, the Russian gun crew was ready.
01:52The pickup truck had been reinforced to carry a ZU-232, armed with two 23mm automatic cannons capable of a
02:01combined theoretical rate of fire of approximately 2,000 rounds per minute.
02:05One soldier heard the approaching engines.
02:08The crew chief ordered everyone to prepare to fire.
02:11When the silhouette of the first UAV appeared in the gap between the two wooded areas, both barrels opened up
02:16at once.
02:17Bright red tracers ripped across the sky, while the thunder of the 23mm guns drowned out the engines overhead.
02:25But, rate of fire could not replace accuracy.
02:28The target was small, flying low, and constantly shifting across the gunner's field of view, while the weapon itself was
02:34aimed manually.
02:35The first burst missed completely.
02:38Then, one final burst found its mark.
02:40The UAV shuddered violently, lost control, and plunged into the field, throwing up a column of dust.
02:45There was no large explosion like the Russian soldiers had expected.
02:49The aircraft they had just destroyed was one of the four decoys.
02:53While the gun crew confirmed the kill, the other dark silhouettes had already disappeared behind the terrain.
02:59Russia had scored its first success, but all eight Ukrainian warheads were still intact.
03:03The encounter exposed both the strengths and limitations of mobile fire teams.
03:08The ZU-232 was inexpensive, simple, and could be mounted on many types of vehicles, but its effective range against
03:17airborne targets was only around 1.2 to 1.5 miles.
03:21Forests and low hills could hide UAVs until they appeared at very close range.
03:26To cover a border stretching for hundreds of miles with units like these, Russia would need large numbers of soldiers,
03:32vehicles, and ammunition.
03:34The rounds were cheap, but maintaining a continuous defensive screen was not.
03:38And as soon as the gunfire stopped, the Ukrainian formation faced an enemy that needed no ammunition at all.
03:44Headwinds, stronger than forecast.
03:47Ground speed dropped, the engines had to run at higher power, and fuel began disappearing faster than planned, especially on
03:54the heavier Lutyi-carrying warheads.
03:57In Kyiv, the mission planner recalculated the numbers.
04:00Nearly 250 miles remained, and the projected strike time was 1152 hours.
04:05If the wind did not ease, some of the aircraft might survive every layer of Russian air defense, only to
04:12fall from the sky after running out of fuel.
04:14At the same time, the report from the forest edge reached regional command.
04:19One UAV destroyed, multiple additional targets had passed through, exact number unknown.
04:25The warning began spreading to units deeper inside Russian territory.
04:29The next defensive layer did not need to see the UAVs in order to attack them.
04:33It only needed someone to flip a switch.
04:36There was no gunfire, no missile launch, not even a flash.
04:41But at 0940 hours, as the 11 Ukrainian UAVs pushed more than 60 miles inside Russian territory,
04:48they began coming under attack from a weapon they could not see.
04:52Below them, in a clearing beside the edge of a pine forest,
04:55a Russian military truck sat beneath the trees with tall antenna masks extending above it.
05:00It was an R-330 Ja-Jetel electronic warfare system,
05:05and ever since the warning arrived from the border, it had been continuously jamming the sky above.
05:11The R-330 Ja-Jetel is designed to disrupt satellite communications and satellite navigation signals
05:19across a radius of dozens of miles.
05:21By the time navigation signals reach a UAV receiver, they are already extremely weak,
05:27so a sufficiently powerful jammer can prevent the system from determining a reliable position.
05:33As the formation entered the jamming zone, the UAV receivers began losing satellite signals one after another.
05:40Their flight control systems automatically switched to inertial navigation,
05:44using accelerometers and gyroscopes to estimate position.
05:47The method requires no satellite connection, but it has one critical weakness.
05:52Errors accumulate with every passing minute.
05:55From the ground, the UAVs still appeared to be flying normally.
05:58Inside their navigation systems, however, accuracy was quietly bleeding away.
06:03One Lut-Yuyi was affected more severely than the others.
06:06Accumulated navigation error gradually pulled it north,
06:10carrying it farther from the formation with every passing minute.
06:13Its guidance system had no way to recognize that its calculated position was wrong,
06:18then it disappeared behind a band of forest.
06:21No Russian observation post saw it again.
06:24In Kiev, after comparing the Russian sighting reports intercepted by Ukrainian intelligence,
06:30the planning team realized that this UAV never appeared anywhere beyond the jamming zone.
06:35The officer crossed it off the list and wrote two words beside it.
06:39Lost aircraft.
06:40For both sides, that Lut-Yuyi had effectively ceased to exist.
06:44At the jetel position, the Russian soldiers had no idea they had just forced one target off course.
06:50That was one of the limitations of electronic warfare.
06:53It could degrade multiple UAVs at once,
06:56but it could not confirm which individual aircraft had actually been neutralized.
07:00The remaining 10 UAVs continued northeast.
07:04The officer in Kiev looked again at the route.
07:07Earlier intelligence had already warned of jamming zones along the flight path,
07:10so the planners had selected a longer route to reduce the amount of time
07:14the formation would spend inside the strongest interference.
07:17But every additional mile cost fuel,
07:20and combined with the headwind,
07:22the safety margin was now far thinner than originally calculated.
07:26Two aircraft were gone.
07:27The clock was still running.
07:29Meanwhile, at Russian command,
07:31scattered reports were being assembled into a troubling picture.
07:34The low-flying targets were still moving deeper inland,
07:37and the jamming zone had failed to stop them.
07:40A new order was transmitted to a military helicopter base near Kursk.
07:44This time, the Ukrainian formation would not be facing stationary guns
07:48or invisible waves of interference.
07:51What was being awakened could take off,
07:53chase them down, and hunt them.
07:56At 1025 hours, an aircraft weighing roughly 11 tons lifted off from a military airfield near Kursk,
08:03its main rotor whipping dust and dry leaves into violent spirals across the apron.
08:08It was a Mi-24P attack helicopter, powered by two Klimov-TV,
08:13three 117 turbine engines roaring at high output.
08:17Its mission was clear.
08:19Find and destroy the UAVs that had already crossed the border and survive the Jetel jamming zone.
08:25Inside the cockpit, the crew compared scattered sighting coordinates on their map.
08:29They did not know how many targets were ahead,
08:33and they had no way of knowing which ones carried warheads.
08:36In terms of speed, the hunt was badly uneven.
08:39The Mi-24P cruises at roughly 168 miles per hour
08:43and can reach nearly 208 miles per hour,
08:46while the UAVs were moving at only about 100 miles per hour.
08:50But being faster did not mean seeing them first.
08:53From above, a small Lutuyi flying close to the ground could easily blend into fields and tree lines,
09:00appearing for a few seconds before disappearing behind a row of birch trees.
09:04Reports from ground units only added confusion.
09:07One unit saw three targets, another reported five.
09:11After several minutes of searching,
09:13the crew finally spotted small shapes moving northeast.
09:16The pilot changed course and approached from behind.
09:19The Mi-24P's main gun is a fixed 30mm twin-barrel GS-30K cannon
09:25mounted on the right side of the forward fuselage.
09:28It has no rotating turret and cannot simply swing toward a target.
09:32To aim, the pilot has to turn the entire helicopter onto the firing line
09:36while maintaining safe, low-altitude flight
09:38and tracking a small moving object at the same time.
09:42When one Lutuyi became clearly visible against the farmland below,
09:45he brought the helicopter's nose onto the target and fired.
09:49The first burst tore through the air and ripped into the ground behind the UAV.
09:53He corrected his aim.
09:55The second burst hit.
09:56The 30mm rounds tore through the drone's fuselage.
10:00One wing broke away,
10:01and the Lutuyi crashed into the field,
10:04leaving behind a plume of black smoke.
10:06It was the first warhead carrying Lutuyi directly shot down by Russian fire.
10:11The hunt was not over.
10:12Another UAV silhouette appeared nearby.
10:15The pilot turned the helicopter and fired another burst.
10:18The second target wobbled and fell,
10:20leaving only dust and debris with no explosion.
10:24It was a decoy, but the crew had no way of knowing that.
10:27The report sent back to command was simple.
10:29Two targets destroyed.
10:31The crew continued searching,
10:33but new reports showed that the Ukrainian UAVs
10:35had spread across an area dozens of miles wide.
10:38One helicopter could not chase them all at once.
10:41Ground reports arrived late,
10:43and by the time the Mi-24P reached the reported coordinates,
10:46the target was often already gone.
10:49Its two turbine engines were also burning fuel at a significant rate.
10:52By nearly 1,100 hours,
10:54the Mi-24P was ordered to return for refueling,
10:57leaving the remaining targets outside its reach.
11:00This was one of the central problems of UAV warfare.
11:03To destroy two small targets,
11:06Russia had to commit a combat helicopter,
11:08a trained crew,
11:1030mm ammunition,
11:11maintenance personnel,
11:12and airfield logistics,
11:14with operating costs potentially reaching several thousand dollars per flight hour.
11:19One of those two targets had been nothing more than a decoy,
11:22but the other carried a warhead that might otherwise have reached a factory.
11:26The problem was not that the Mi-24P performed poorly.
11:30The problem was that no matter how fast or powerful a single helicopter might be,
11:34it could not be everywhere at once.
11:37In Kyiv, the clock was approaching 1,100 hours.
11:40As far as the Ukrainian officer knew,
11:43four aircraft had now been lost,
11:45reducing the number of warheads from eight to six.
11:48He still believed the rest of the plan remained intact.
11:51According to the intelligence map spread across his desk,
11:54there were no major air defense systems on the western outskirts of Jelets.
11:58If the remaining UAVs could get past the scattered mobile teams,
12:02the route to the factory was almost open.
12:05In Lepetsk, however,
12:06the alert level had been raised to maximum,
12:09and on a hill west of the city,
12:11something was waiting that did not appear anywhere on his map.
12:15On the map in Kyiv,
12:17the hill west of Jelets was marked white.
12:19No radar, no launchers, nothing at all.
12:22The entire plan had been built around that assumption.
12:26The decoy UAVs only needed to draw fire from scattered mobile teams,
12:30while the area immediately around the factory was believed to be almost undefended.
12:35But that map was 48 hours out of date.
12:37Two nights earlier,
12:39a Russian convoy had quietly climbed the hill.
12:41And at 11.30 hours,
12:44with eight UAVs in the formation still about 25 miles from the city,
12:48what was waiting there was a TOR-M2 air defense system
12:51with 16 missiles ready to launch.
12:54The tracked TOR-M2 combat vehicle was on alert,
12:57its surveillance radar rotating steadily on the roof
13:00while the crew watched their displays.
13:02Unlike the ZU-232 at the border,
13:06the TOR-M2 combines search radar,
13:08fire control systems,
13:09and missiles on a single vehicle.
13:12Its radar can detect targets from roughly 20 miles away.
13:15It carries up to 16.9 M338K missiles
13:20with an engagement range of approximately 9 to 10 miles
13:23and can engage up to four targets simultaneously.
13:27The missiles launch vertically,
13:29are guided by radio command,
13:30and carry fragmentation warheads
13:32capable of tearing apart a UAV
13:34with high-velocity metal fragments.
13:37At around 11.40 hours,
13:39the radar detected eight contacts approaching the city.
13:42Two of them stood out clearly.
13:44According to the mission programming,
13:46the final two decoy UAVs climbed
13:48as they approached Yelits,
13:50deliberately exposing themselves
13:52to attract the attention of any nearby air defense units
13:55while the 6-luiuchi stayed low against the terrain.
13:58The tactic had been designed for a few mobile gun crews.
14:02It had never been designed for a TOR-M2.
14:05The crew commander had no way of knowing
14:07which aircraft carried explosives.
14:09He simply saw the two easiest targets.
14:11The order to fire was given.
14:13Two 9M338K missiles launched vertically
14:17from the vehicle in quick succession,
14:19leaving columns of white smoke behind.
14:22Seconds later, two fireballs appeared in the sky.
14:25Both decoys shattered and fell into open ground.
14:28But the crew commander did not stop.
14:30Six other contacts remained on the screen,
14:33and the TOR-M2 continued firing.
14:36White missile trails streaked across the sky
14:38west of the city one after another.
14:40Several missiles missed the small, low-flying target.
14:43Then an airburst tore through the wing of the first Luuchi,
14:46sending it spinning into a field.
14:49The second was cut nearly in half by fragments
14:51and fell into sparse woodland.
14:53The third managed to continue for a short distance,
14:56trailing black smoke,
14:58before losing control and crashing into the ground.
15:01By 1148 hours,
15:03the TOR-M2 had fired 12 missiles
15:05to destroy five UAVs.
15:07Three contacts still remained on the display.
15:10The success came at a cost.
15:12The TOR-M2 had only four of its 16 missiles remaining.
15:16Each nine M338K is a complex weapon
15:20estimated to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,
15:22far more than the decoy UAVs it had just destroyed.
15:26And a TOR-M2 cannot reload in seconds.
15:29Rearming requires a support vehicle in time,
15:32while three Luuchi were still in the air.
15:34The crew commander reported the results,
15:37requested resupply,
15:38and continued scanning the sky.
15:40In Kyiv,
15:41when intelligence reported missile trails west of Yalet's,
15:44the officer stared at the white hill on his map.
15:47He understood immediately.
15:49His plan was dead.
15:50The decoys had been prepared for a different opponent,
15:53and the UAVs that had just fallen
15:55were the price of intelligence
15:56that was 48 hours too old.
15:58One member of the team asked
16:00whether the strike still had enough strength
16:02to damage Inerja.
16:03The officer did not answer.
16:06He had no answer.
16:07At the Lepetsk Air Defense Command Post,
16:09five destroyed targets
16:11represented the best result of the day.
16:13Three Luuchi were still advancing,
16:15and only four minutes remained
16:16before the planned strike time.
16:18The final layer of defense
16:20was no longer sitting on a distant hill.
16:22It was standing on the roof of the factory itself.
16:26At 11.44 hours,
16:28air raid sirens shattered the midday calm
16:30at the Inerja plant.
16:32Production lines shut down one after another.
16:34Workers abandoned their stations
16:36and rushed toward shelters,
16:37while safety personnel urged the last groups
16:40to clear the workshops.
16:41From west of the city came the repeated thump
16:44of Tor-M-2 missile detonations.
16:46The sky was still clear.
16:48Sunlight still reflected from the industrial roofs.
16:51But everyone there understood
16:53that the threat was getting very close.
16:55Inerja was not an ordinary factory.
16:58According to information released
16:59by Ukrainian military intelligence,
17:02the company develops and manufactures
17:04electrochemical power sources,
17:06batteries,
17:06and energy storage units
17:08for multiple Russian weapons systems,
17:10including Iskander-M ballistic missiles,
17:13cruise missiles,
17:14and guidance modules,
17:16fitted to aerial bombs.
17:17These components are far smaller
17:19than engines or warheads,
17:21but without them,
17:22the electronics,
17:23sensors,
17:24and control systems inside those weapons
17:26cannot function.
17:27A power supply production workshop
17:29can therefore become a bottleneck
17:31in an entire supply chain.
17:33Hitting it could have consequences
17:35far beyond the loss of a single building.
17:37Immediately after the alarm,
17:39smoke generators across the complex
17:41activated at once.
17:42Thick streams of white smoke
17:44rolled upward from multiple positions,
17:46spread across the courtyards,
17:48and gradually swallowed the workshop roofs.
17:50Within minutes,
17:51part of the factory disappeared from view.
17:53But the wind kept tearing the smoke screen apart,
17:57leaving some areas completely obscured
17:59while exposing sections of sheet metal roofing elsewhere.
18:02The smoke could confuse an optical camera,
18:05but it could not erase the factory's coordinates
18:07from a UAV's memory.
18:09On the roof of a workshop
18:10at the edge of the complex,
18:12two Russian soldiers
18:13were watching the western sky.
18:15One carried a 9K-333
18:18Verbuman portable air defense system,
18:20firing the 9M-336 missile
18:23with a multi-spectral seeker
18:25operating across infrared and ultraviolet bands,
18:28a range of roughly 3.7 miles,
18:30and a maximum engagement altitude
18:32of nearly 15,000 feet.
18:34But shooting down a UAV
18:36with an infrared-guided missile
18:38was far from easy.
18:40A small piston engine
18:41produced a much weaker heat signature
18:43than a helicopter or jet aircraft,
18:45and seeing a target with the naked eye
18:47did not mean the seeker had acquired it.
18:48At 11.50 hours,
18:50a small black dot
18:51appeared over the outskirts of Yeleks.
18:54The sound of the Luty's engine
18:55grew louder between the wailing sirens.
18:58The Verbumaner raised the launcher
18:59onto his shoulder,
19:00kept the target in view,
19:01and waited for a lock.
19:03The seconds dragged on
19:04as the UAV moved across the sky
19:06and threw broken patches of white smoke.
19:09Then the lock tone sounded.
19:11He fired.
19:12The 9M-336 missile
19:14left the tube with a piercing roar,
19:16drawing a straight trail of smoke
19:18into the sky.
19:19Seconds later,
19:20a fireball erupted beside the Luty.
19:22Fragments shredded one wing,
19:24the UAV rolled,
19:25lost altitude,
19:26and crashed into open ground
19:27on the outskirts,
19:28throwing up a large cloud of dust.
19:31The launcher on his shoulder
19:32was now empty.
19:33His partner hurried
19:34to load another missile,
19:36while the remaining two Luty drones
19:38continued closing in.
19:39Then the engine on one of them
19:41began to sputter.
19:42One misfire,
19:43then another.
19:44After more than three hours
19:45of flying into a headwind,
19:47its fuel tank
19:47had reached the last drops.
19:49The engine stopped completely.
19:51The Luty began gliding silently downward,
19:54losing a little more altitude
19:56every second
19:56while the factory perimeter
19:57was only 875 yards away.
20:01650 yards.
20:03440 yards.
20:05It touched down
20:06in a grassy area
20:07outside the fence,
20:08skidded across the ground,
20:09and came to rest.
20:11There was no explosion.
20:12The warhead
20:13it had carried
20:14for nearly 250 miles
20:15had stopped
20:16only a parking lot
20:17away from its target.
20:19The soldiers on the roof
20:20looked at each other.
20:21The headwind
20:22had just accomplished
20:22what the entire
20:23Tor M2 battery
20:25had failed to do.
20:26Now,
20:26only one Luty remained
20:28in the sky
20:28over Yalet's.
20:30One warhead
20:31of roughly 110 pounds
20:32against an entire factory.
20:34In Kiev,
20:35the officer watched
20:36the clock move
20:37toward 1152 hours.
20:39After everything
20:40that had been lost,
20:41the entire operation
20:42now depended
20:43on a single UAV.
20:461152 hours.
20:47The final Luty
20:48burst out of
20:49the white smoke screen,
20:50nose angled downward,
20:52its engine screaming
20:53at full power.
20:54The second soldier
20:55on the roof
20:56had just finished
20:56loading another missile,
20:57but it was already
20:59too late.
20:59The UAV slammed directly
21:01into one corner
21:02of the workshop roof.
21:04For a moment,
21:05everything went silent.
21:06Then the warhead
21:07detonated.
21:08An orange-red fireball
21:10expanded outward,
21:11tearing open
21:12the sheet metal roof
21:13and throwing metal panels
21:14dozens of feet
21:15into the air.
21:16The shockwave swept
21:17across the complex,
21:18blowing away
21:19the white smoke screen
21:20and shattering windows
21:21in nearby buildings.
21:23Inside the shelters,
21:24dust fell from the ceilings
21:25onto the workers below.
21:27But a single warhead
21:28was not enough
21:29to consume
21:29the entire workshop.
21:31As the dust settled,
21:32a large hole gaped
21:33in one corner
21:34of the roof
21:34while flames surged
21:36and then began
21:37to weaken within minutes.
21:38At 11.53 hours,
21:40the Lippets command post
21:41issued its assessment.
21:43The attack was over,
21:45damage was limited,
21:46and all targets
21:47had been dealt with.
21:48Fire crews gathered
21:49at the gate
21:50and waited
21:50for permission to enter.
21:52Air defense teams
21:53turned their weapons
21:54back toward the west,
21:55the direction from which
21:56every threat
21:57had appeared
21:58throughout the morning.
21:59No one was looking north.
22:0011.56 hours.
22:02From the northeast,
22:04where no radar was pointing
22:05and no soldier was watching,
22:07the steady drone
22:08of an engine
22:08rolled over the rooftops.
22:10It was the Liuchi
22:11that had disappeared
22:13inside the Gittel jamming zone
22:14more than two hours earlier.
22:16After drifting north,
22:17it had unintentionally
22:19escaped the headwind
22:20that had been draining
22:21the rest of the formation.
22:22Once outside the jamming zone,
22:24it reacquired satellite navigation,
22:26recalculated its position,
22:28and quietly turned back
22:29toward the only target
22:31stored in its memory.
22:31It had avoided
22:33the Mi-24P helicopter,
22:35avoided the hill
22:36defended by the Tor M2,
22:37and even avoided
22:39the Verba team
22:39on the factory roof,
22:41simply because
22:41it had gotten lost.
22:43It was four minutes late,
22:44but it was approaching
22:45from a direction
22:46no one was still expecting.
22:48It flew straight
22:49into the opening
22:49the previous Liuchi
22:50had already torn
22:51in the workshop room.
22:52This time,
22:53the warhead detonated
22:54deep inside the building,
22:56where the first fire
22:57was still smoldering.
22:58A massive fireball erupted,
23:00lifting the remaining
23:01roof structure
23:02into the air.
23:03Steel beams twisted
23:04like wire,
23:06walls shook,
23:06and then collapsed inward.
23:08The fire that had been fading
23:10suddenly found fresh air
23:11and new material,
23:12roaring into an inferno
23:14that consumed
23:15the entire workshop.
23:16Smaller explosions
23:17followed from inside,
23:19one after another,
23:20as the heat spread
23:21into areas
23:21that had not been
23:22directly hit.
23:23A column of black smoke
23:24shot hundreds of feet
23:26into the sky,
23:27punching through
23:27the white camouflage smoke
23:29and blotting out
23:30the midday sun
23:30over Yaled's.
23:32Across the city,
23:33residents could see
23:34the towering smoke column
23:35gradually leaning
23:36with the wind.
23:37Power in the affected section
23:39was cut immediately,
23:40and every production line
23:42came to a complete stop.
23:44Fire crews at the gate
23:45could not move in right away.
23:47The steel structure
23:48had warped,
23:49remaining sections of wall
23:50could collapse
23:51at any moment,
23:51and damaged
23:52industrial electrical equipment
23:54made every step
23:55inside dangerous.
23:56For hours afterward,
23:58firefighters could do
23:59little more
23:59than contain the blaze,
24:01prevent it from spreading
24:02into neighboring buildings,
24:03and wait for the fire to weaken.
24:05Eventually,
24:06the flames would be extinguished.
24:07But the specialized machinery
24:09inside,
24:10the production lines,
24:12manufacturing components
24:13for Iskander-M missiles
24:14and guided bombs,
24:15could not be replaced
24:17nearly as quickly.
24:18In Kiev,
24:19the officer had written
24:20that Lutuye off
24:21as a loss
24:21more than two hours earlier.
24:23Now,
24:24he stared at the smoke column
24:25on the screen,
24:26unable to believe
24:27what he was seeing.
24:28He picked up the mission list
24:30and looked at the words
24:30Lost Aircraft
24:31beside one UAV identification number
24:34that Lutuye had not been saved
24:36by his plan.
24:37It had been saved
24:38by the very error
24:39that had convinced him
24:39it was gone.
24:40That is the brutal nature
24:42of this kind of war.
24:43Russia can shoot down
24:44most of what is flying toward it,
24:46and every interception
24:47is a real defensive success.
24:49But a defensive shield
24:51has to be right every time,
24:52while the attacker
24:53only has to be right once.
24:55A map that was 48 hours out of date
24:58nearly cost Ukraine
24:59the entire operation.
25:01An all-clear issued
25:02four minutes too early
25:03cost Russia a workshop.
25:05And for Russia,
25:06the cost of Yelets
25:07would not end
25:07with the missiles
25:08it had fired.
25:09It would also be measured
25:10in every Iskander-M
25:12delayed from leaving
25:13the production line,
25:14every guided bomb
25:15waiting for a missing power unit
25:17over the weeks
25:18and months that followed.
25:19One UAV had been considered
25:20lost by both sides
25:22and four minutes
25:23were enough
25:23to change the outcome
25:24of the entire battle.
25:25What do you think
25:26mattered more?
25:27Ukraine's luck
25:28or Russian air defense
25:29becoming too confident
25:31too soon?
25:31Share your thoughts
25:32in the comments below.