VLADIMIR Putin has begun deploying kamikaze drones that select their own targets using AI in a fresh assault on Ukraine.
The country now faces over 500 attacks every night as a new Russian strike UAV-V2U locates victims autonomously using artificial intelligence.
ReutersFire and smoke rise in Ukraine following a Russian drone and missile strike[/caption]
ReutersKyiv is seen engulfed in flames following a Russian drone attack[/caption]
Marking a new escalation in the war, the drone is only equipped with one GPS module and uses camera images alongside terrain pictures to navigate.
It comes after Moscow fired more than 400 drones and 45 missiles across Ukraine in two days.
The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine said: “The key feature of the drone is its ability to autonomously search for and select targets using artificial intelligence.
“Its computing system is based on the Chinese Leetop A203 minicomputer, with a high-speed processor assembly built on the NVIDIA Jetson Orin module.”
Reports said the UAV-V2U is being used to close in on the northeastern city of Sumy, while Putin ramps up drone production and builds new launch sites.
Some 70 units a day are now being made compared to just 21 last year, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence.
Earlier this week, it was reported that around 125,000 Russian soldiers were massing along the Sumy and Kharkiv frontiers.
The offensive is expected to focus on Kramatorsk, Kostiantynivka, and Pokrovsk in the Donbas – with plans to encircle key cities rather than slug it out street by street.
Military analyst Konrad Muzyka told The Telegraph Russia’s tactics have evolved: “We have seen the Russians shift to focused, small-unit attacks, often of just three to five men.
“Company-size assaults of 50 to 100 men hardly ever happen anymore.”
But some senior commanders in Ukraine believe that could be a feint and Russia is actually preparing to attack further south to push further into the Donbas, Ukraine Pravda reports.
Russia is likely to attack through three areas near each other in the Donbas – Kramatorsk, Kostiantynivka, and Pokrovsk.
Vlad already controls more than 95 per cent of Luhansk, but capturing Donetsk would cement his control over the Donbas region and achieve a war aim, albeit a scaled-down one.
Russia’s progress and developments in drone warfare is down to help from China, according to Ukrainian officials.
Though Beijing has repeatedly denied supplying drones or weapon components to Russia, the UAV is reportedly “mostly assembled from Chinese-manufactured components.”
Meanwhile, Trump and Biden have both hit China with sanctions to stop it getting access to computer chips.
This comes just hours after drones and missiles were launched at Kyiv as Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bombers were reportedly unleashed to rain hell on the infamous Snake Island in the Black Sea.
Moscow launched a massive strike on Rivne using its Tu-22M3 and Tu-95MS strategic bombers to hit Dubny airbase.
Squadrons of these fighter jets were targeted and destroyed last week in Kyiv’s daring Operation Spiderweb.
Another key Ukrainian military airport – Hostomel – was also attacked as Putin sought revenge for the humiliating attack.
Polish armed forces command said Nato fighter jets were patrolling due to “intensive air attack by the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory”.
Just days ago, Kharkiv was rocked overnight as 48 kamikaze drones, along with missiles and guided bombs, slammed into residential areas, according to the city’s mayor.
“We have a lot of damage,” Ihor Terekhov said.
More than 50 explosions rocked Kharkiv, with the mayor adding it was “the most powerful attack” on the city of the 39-month war.
In the latest terror strikes on civilians, 18 multi-story buildings and 13 private houses were hit and damaged.
In Kyiv, a dramatic tower block video filmed by a resident showed the terror of another Putin strike on civilians as flames from the exploding drone shot some 80ft up the building.
Three were killed and at least 21 wounded, including a six-weeks-old baby, and a 14-year-old girl.
A woman, 26, trapped under a slab of concrete was eventually freed three hours after the strike, and was seen being stretchered to an ambulance.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha described how hundreds of drones and missiles “rained down” on his country overnight.
He wrote in a social media post: “Kharkiv had a particularly terrible night.
“People were injured and killed, and the energy infrastructure was also damaged.”
Sybiha added there were further strikes in the Donetsk, Dnipro, Ternopil and Odesa regions.
ReutersThe Kursk region after being struck by a Russian drone attack[/caption]
ReutersA police bomb squad member inspects a Russian kamikaze drone[/caption]
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