A Ukrainian soldier flies a first-person-view drone in November 2025.
Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Reuters
Russian intelligence said on Monday that it stopped two major Ukrainian drone attacks on its airfields, describing a clandestine smuggling operation involving trailers, balloons, and fixed-wing drones.State media outlet TASS reported that the Federal Security Service, or FSB, said the targets of the Ukrainian operation were the Ukrainka military airfield in the Amur region and the Shagol airfield in Chelyabinsk.Both airfields are hundreds of miles away from Ukrainian territory; Amur is in the Far East and borders China, while Chelyabinsk is in the Urals.Per TASS, the FSB said the Ukrainian operation began with fixed-wing drones and balloons dropping off first-person-view attack drones in Bryansk, a region bordering Ukraine.Russian intelligence said the smaller drones were smuggled deeper into the country via car-towed trailers with false bottoms, loaded with household appliances as a ruse.The drones were then prepared for attack in garages near the airfields, the FSB added.The agency told TASS that it seized two ground control stations and 24 first-person-view drones equipped with Western-manufactured "neural control modules," which essentially provide onboard artificial intelligence.
