Baba Yaga Attack Drone Strikes Russian Fortifications in Kursk

Footage purporting to show a Ukrainian "Baba Yaga" drone attacking Russian fortifications in the border Kursk region has surfaced online as Kyiv steams ahead with its surprise cross-border incursion.

The night-vision clip, circulating online but not specifying a date or exact location, appears to show at least three bombs being dropped from an airborne drone. The brief video, shared by Anton Gerashchenko, a former adviser to Ukraine's Interior Ministry, is said to be in Kursk, where Ukraine is now six days into a cross-border push.

Newsweek could not independently verify the clip, and has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

Ukraine's Baba Yaga drones are heavy attack weapons, adapted from their original use as agricultural drones to having become a formidable tool in Kyiv's arsenal for use against Russian troops.

Russian sources in Ukraine have previously indicated that the Baba Yaga drones have been upgraded to operate at night, and are able to reach longer distances without being audible to Moscow's troops. Reports this month have also suggested the drones are now capable of using smart, or guided, bombs.

Attention turned to Kursk on Tuesday after Kyiv launched a cross-border raid, which a Ukrainian official told AFP on Sunday involved "thousands" of troops. President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to refer to the offensive for the first time on Saturday night, after Russian leader Vladimir Putin called the push a "large-scale provocation" on Wednesday.

Moscow officials have claimed several times to have stopped Ukraine's advance, although a statement from Russia's Defense Ministry on Sunday indicated fighting was ongoing in settlements up to 20 miles into its territory. An attempt to "break through" in the Belovsky district, southeast of the Kursk town of Sudzha, was stopped, the Kremlin added.

Ukraine largely held onto positions in Kursk and "advanced slightly further than their previously confirmed positions," the U.S.-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Saturday.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said on Sunday that the incursion had the "sole purpose of intimidating the civilian population of Russia," and it made "no sense from a military point of view."

"A tough response from the Russian Armed Forces will not be long in coming," Zakharova said.

Acting Kursk Regional Governor Alexei Smirnov declared a state of emergency last week, and Russia announced that its FSB security agency would lead a "counter-terrorism operation" in regions bordering Ukraine, with authorities issued increased powers.

More than 8,000 people have been evacuated from Kursk in the past day, Russian state media reported on Sunday.

Russia's government said on Sunday that Ukraine had lost up to 1,350 fighters, 29 tanks and 32 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles in the incursion.

Ukraine's military did not specify where along the front line Russia sustained its losses, but said on Sunday that Moscow had sustained 1,220 casualties in the past 24 hours. The Kremlin lost six tanks, 13 armored combat vehicles, and 58 artillery systems since Saturday morning, according to Ukraine's figures.

Newsweek could not independently verify either side's battlefield losses.

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