Since the beginning of September, on the posts of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and Ukrainian bloggers on social networks, a drone can be seen flying over the forest where Russian positions are located.
A kind of fire rain falls from the drone. It is molten thermite, a mixture of aluminum and iron oxide, or rust.
The mixture is probably ignited with an electric lighter. It can reach a temperature of 2.200 degrees Celsius and is able to ignite any material, including steel.
Accuracy and efficiency
After the release of the video, representatives of the Ukrainian armed forces confirmed that it was the first combat use of the "Dragon drone", stressing that enemy positions can be destroyed with great precision, which is not characteristic of other weapons.
Meanwhile, the Russian media recognized the danger. "They are partly really effective. Their red-hot mixtures literally burn positions and forests, which exposes our soldiers," the former fighter of the so-called Luhansk Republic was quoted as saying in the Moskovskii Komsomolets newspaper.
Footage on social networks shows the horrific consequences of using this drone.
It is not clear where the Ukrainians have already used the drone. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine showed footage from Kharkiv authorities.
Emil Kastehelmi of Finland's Black Bird Group, which analyzes intelligence on the war in Ukraine from publicly available sources, used geolocation and confirmed the use of these drones on the front in Zaporozhye and Donetsk.
He said that the drone was also used at least once in the border region of Kursk, where the Ukrainian army has been conducting an operation since August.
Use in the First World War
This is not a new weapon. In the First World War, the Germans dropped such bombs on Great Britain.
They used the invention of the chemist Hans Goldschmidt. He intended his invention for peacetime use - welding railway tracks.
In the Second World War, bombs with such filling were used by both Nazi Germany and the allied armies.
Similar weapons include phosphorus and napalm. The United States used napalm against Japan in World War II and in the Vietnam War.
In the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was occasionally reported that prohibited means such as chemical weapons were used. The Russian army was repeatedly accused of using white phosphorus ammunition in the battles for Marijupolj, Avdijevka and Ugljedar, and both sides were accused of using cluster bombs.
What does international law say?
According to international law, the use of such "dragon fire" is not prohibited. But, due to the terrible effect on the human body, its use against civilian targets is prohibited.
"The problem with using thermite mixture is that it falls randomly," says Marina Miron, a military ethics researcher at King's College London.
"However, the use is not prohibited, but Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons restricts the use to exclusively military purposes, since these weapons can cause the most severe burns and damage to the respiratory tract," she says.
Even more than half a century ago, the UN General Assembly declared against the use of this weapon in a resolution.
Half a century later, the international organization for the protection of human rights, Human Rights Watch, in its report for the year 2022, complains about the high lethality of these weapons and indicates that the treatment of burns can last for months.
Danger to the environment
In the course of the war so far, numerous new weapons have been developed, especially drones. Dmytro Shluktenko from the "Lapka Dsigi" foundation supplies the Ukrainian army with high-tech equipment, including drones.
In an interview with Deutsche Welle (DW), he guarantees that the Ukrainians use "dragon drones" only against military targets in sparsely populated areas.
"The Russians are using much more lethal weapons against us, also against civilian targets. That's why I think we deserve a good grade in the responsibility for the civilian population when using these weapons," he says.
Shluktenko indicates that Russian forces have dug in massively in Ukrainian forests, which provide them with natural protection. That protection, he says, should be taken away from them.
"Now it's very dry in the Ukrainian forests, the Russians throw a lot of garbage around their positions and are not very careful with the ammunition. It all catches fire quickly and forces them to retreat," says Shluktenko.
He adds that the Russian forces do not have the means to put out the fire caused by the Ukrainian "dragons".
The Human Rights Watch report explicitly states that the use of such weapons leads to severe consequences for the environment, since thermite literally burns everything.
The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) warns of the uncontrolled spread of fires.
Shluktenko admits that these weapons cause damage to the environment, but emphasizes that the priority is the liberation of Ukraine from Russian occupation. "The biggest danger for Ukraine is the loss of sovereignty," he says.
According to him, Ukrainians will continue to experiment with different technologies to defeat the Russians.
Will Russia respond?
Many were surprised by the first footage of the "dragon drone" being used. Experts are reserved in terms of assessing the impact of these weapons on the course of the war.
However, they believe that such drones cannot replace the use of classic drones or aircraft in attacks on infantry. But, according to them, these drones could help save precious ammunition.
Emil Kastehelmi says that it is also about increasing firepower. "When the sky spews fire as if from a dragon's throat, then it has a powerful effect on the psyche of the enemy," he says.
Much depends on what kind of answer the Russians will find. In the early days, it seems they had nothing to compete with.
Kastehelmi assumes that the Russians could copy the Ukrainian drone. According to some reports, the first Russian examples have already been produced.
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