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Guided Shahed Makes Its First Kill Attempt—as Russia Targets Ukrainian Air-Defense Crew, Video
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New footage showing a Russian Shahed-type attack drone being remotely piloted in real time as it struck a Ukrainian mobile fire team vehicle in the Chernihiv region was released by Serhii “Flash,” a Ukrainian specialist in radio-technology, on December 2.
“Fortunately, everyone survived. But now we have this kind of threat,” he wrote.
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The footage appears to show a Shahed—also known in Russia as Geran-2 or the BM-35 variant—equipped with a live remote-control link, allowing an operator to steer the drone directly onto a moving target.
A Telegram channel linked to Ukraine’s General Staff added that the drone was controlled via a mesh-network MESH system rather than exclusively through satellite signals.
🤬 Online-controlled UAV attacks a mobile fire group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine pic.twitter.com/t7WmRFayBm
— big ben (@alternative_war) December 2, 2025
“A remotely controlled, MESH-networked strike UAV Geran-2 (or BM-35) attacks a Mobile Fire Group vehicle.
This is exactly where EW is needed now—in the frequency ranges of the MESH network. Jamming only satellite signals is no longer effective,” the channel wrote.
Ukrainian investigators say that a previously downed Shahed drone recovered a full set of Chinese mesh-network modems, confirming earlier assessments of Russia’s attempts to increase the drone’s survivability and precision.
Some Russian “Shahed ” (Geran-2) strike UAVs continue to be found with cameras and radio mesh modems.
— Roy🇨🇦 (@GrandpaRoy2) September 13, 2025
This allows the drone to be manually guided by an operator to the target.
Depending on distance the radio connection requires UAV repeaters, or a local receiver on the ground. https://t.co/c0VzhaB8mD pic.twitter.com/L1cH6opVyR
The device identified is the XK-F358 mesh modem from China’s Xingkai Tech—also marked in some cases as the HX-50—allowing multiple drones or ground relays to form a dynamic, self-healing data network.
Such mesh networking allows real-time control of a drone even after long-range jamming, as well as creates a chain of airborne relays, each re-transmitting signals for the next, significantly complicating Ukrainian electronic warfare efforts.
This architecture could allow Russia to steer a Shahed manually in its final approach phase, compensating for strong GPS jamming, according to the Ukrainian defense media outlet Defense Express.
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The drone recovered in previous incidents carried a fixed forward-facing camera, the report noted—similar to inexpensive surveillance-system cameras rather than military optics.
Though low-quality, analysts say the camera is good enough for mid-flight navigation, terminal guidance or manually steering the drone toward moving targets.
Some Ukrainian analysts believe ground agents may be placing hidden relay stations inside the country to strengthen the mesh network, Defense Express noted. Another theoretical option is a long string of airborne drone relays, though that is far more complex.
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New Shahed variants from the “Ь-series” are already being found in Ukraine for month now, but this attack marks the first strike on a Ukrainian Air Defense unit, which are fighting the Russian Shahed and Geran drones on a daily basis.
“The latest find just came in. As you see, antennas are mounted on the ends of the wings,” one report said.
Ukraine now warns that these manually guided Shaheds mark a dangerous evolution in Russia’s drone fleet—turning a previously simple suicide UAV into a hunter-killer platform capable of tracking and striking Ukrainian teams even on the move.
Earlier, Russia used a Shahed-type attack drone equipped with an air-to-air missile for the first time, marking a new escalation in its attempts to target Ukrainian aircraft hunting them.
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