Military expert Yury Knutov said Ukrainian forces are using balloon-launched drones to attack the road leading to Crimea. According to him, the scale of such strikes has expanded, with Ukrainian units now operating not only in combat zones but also far from the front line.
Knutov said the attacks on the land corridor to Crimea involve Kornet-2 drones, also known as Marsianin. These UAVs are lifted into the air by balloons that serve as carriers. Once they reach an altitude of about 5,000 to 7,000 meters, the balloon releases the drone.
According to the expert, the drones are equipped with artificial intelligence, allowing them to operate autonomously. He said similar technologies were used in NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter. Knutov also claimed that the U.S. developer is ready to supply Ukraine with up to 6,000 such devices.
He added that Ukrainian forces are also testing methods for launching UAVs with weather balloons. In his assessment, technology originally developed for Mars is now being used against Russia.
Earlier, reports said Russian air defense systems had intercepted several balloons near Sevastopol that Ukrainian forces used as drone carriers. Such platforms rise to high altitude before releasing high-speed UAVs over a designated area.