- Category
- Latest news
Ukraine Downs Russia’s Newest Jet-Powered Drone in First-Ever Strike Over Black Sea, Video
- Authors
![Maryna_kulakova]( "Photo of Maryna Kulakova")
-924c3c302c27387e19f6c44aaeb98745.png "Photo of Maryna Kulakova")
During a nighttime drone attack on the Odesa region, Ukrainian forces for the first time destroyed Russia’s newest jet-powered drone using a mobile surface-to-air missile system with R-73 missiles, developed by Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) with foreign support.
The HUR reported the operation on May 30, noting that its personnel also trained the system’s operators.
Upon detecting the Russian drone, Ukrainian defense forces targeted and destroyed it. According to the intelligence agency, the aircraft was a modern Russian jet-powered drone, likely a “Danj-M”, which crashed into the Black Sea.
💥 Ukraine’s air defense destroyed Russia’s latest jet-powered drone, likely the "Danj-M", using a missile system developed by the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine.
— UNITED24 Media (@United24media) May 30, 2025
The drone was targeting the Odesa region during a night attack on May 29.
📹 : Defense Intelligence of Ukraine pic.twitter.com/Hewks1EHv0
The Danj-M is capable of reaching altitudes of up to 9 kilometers (about 5.6 miles) and speeds of 750 km/h (around 465 mph), with a flight duration of 30 to 40 minutes.
However, experts say it is currently impossible to assess the drone’s strike accuracy due to a lack of detailed information about its navigation and control systems.
Open-source data indicates that serial production of the Danj drone began in Russia in 1993 at the Orenburg-based Strela Production Association.
Earlier, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency has conducted a helicopter-borne assault in the Kharkiv region, deploying troops deep into contested territory in a bid to thwart Russian attempts to expand across the Oskil River, HUR announced on May 28.
