Ukrainian Drone Showers Russian Positions With 'Molten Thermite': Video

A video circulating on social media shows a Ukrainian drone shower Russian positions with a fiery substance, Ukrainian war social media purports.

"Eastern Ukraine, a Ukrainian drone drops molten thermite on a Russian-held treeline, setting it ablaze," open-source X, formerly Twitter, user OSINT Technical said, sharing the footage circulated by multiple Ukrainian Telegram accounts posting war updates.

Thermite is a mix of aluminium and rust that reaches more than 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit when set alight—twice as hot as molten lava—according to the Science Channel. The Ukrainian Military Center reports that thermite is capable of burning through the armor of vehicles.

Kyiv's military regularly shares drone combat footage showing front line clashes in the ongoing full-scale war, which began in February 2022.

It is not clear when or where the footage was filmed or who first released it. Newsweek has contacted the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine via email for comment.

Ukrainian Telegram channels said the combat footage was filmed in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces are focusing its advance and pushing toward the city of Pokrovsk—a key logistical hub for Ukrainian forces.

The Russian military has pushed to capture the Donetsk and Luhansk regions—together known as the Donbas—since Russia's initial invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014.

X user Dmitri, from War Translated, an independent project that translates war materials war, said the drone belongs to the Medical Service unit of Ukraine's 2nd Mechanized Battalion, 3rd Assault Brigade."

"An FPV drone with a thermite warhead is destroying Russian positions on one of the fronts," he wrote.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based thinktank, said in its latest analysis of the conflict in Ukraine on Sunday that Russian forces recently advanced in the Pokrovsk direction amid continued offensive operations in the area.

"Geolocated footage published on September 1 indicates that Russian forces recently advanced west of Mykhailivka and within central Dolynivka (both southeast of Pokrovsk), and ISW assesses that Russian forces likely seized the settlements," the thinktank said.

The ISW said last week that Moscow is "pursuing two immediate tactical efforts" as part of an ongoing push operation to seize the city.

"The Russian military command likely views both of these tactical efforts as desired prerequisites for launching an intensified offensive effort against Pokrovsk itself," the think tank said.

Forbes reported on August 30 that Ukraine has deployed its Kara-Dag Brigade, which is made up of around 2,000 soldiers, to defend Pokrovsk, amid Russia's push in the region.

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