Fury in Russia as convoy carrying 100 conscripts is obliterated by Ukrainian drones when blundering commander orders trucks to drive in a line through open fields, leaving them sitting ducks

Russians have erupted furiously at viral footage of a devastating Ukrainian drone strike on a convoy of trucks, deemed the latest example of incompetence at the higher levels of Moscow‘s bloody offensive.

Video circulating Telegram shows the moment Ukrainian drones smashed into the convoy carrying 100 conscripts in Russia‘s Kursk region, leaving one truck in flames as smoke billowed high into the sky.

Aerial drone footage shows how the military column tried to disperse as Ukrainian kamikaze drones continued to pelt them with strikes, hunting them down one by one along the road through open fields.

Notes from a Veteran, a Russian milblogger writing to an audience of more than 300,000, lamented: ‘Just last week I wrote about the movement of military columns eight kilometres from the border. Since then, nothing has changed except that the columns have become longer… It is the third year of the war.’

A convoy of 15 trucks was reportedly taken out by FPV drones two miles from the Ukrainian border with Russia’s Sumy region. It was unclear how many casualties were created in the strike.

A military truck explodes as it is struck during the assault on the convoy

Aerial drone footage shows how the military column dispersed after the first hits, but the Ukrainian drone operators chased the scattered vehicles down

One truck is seen exploding after being struck by a Ukrainian drone

Smoke billows from the defeated convoy just two miles from the Ukrainian border 

Roman Alekhin, a self-described social analyst and military volunteer, wrote to some 130,000 subscribers that Russia ‘must look for different logistics routes and split up groups… even if the distance is greater,’ Newsweek reported.

The attack appeared to be carried out by Ukrainian drones.

Until now, Ukraine’s Western allies have supplied weapons to Ukraine on condition that they are not used to fire into Russia.

But tensions have escalated with new footage also showing what is believed to be the first major use of Western-made weapons to destroy targets in Russia.

It is believed the Ukrainian military struck a S-300 or S-400 air defence system using US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and completely destroyed it in a devastating attack earlier this week.

Russia responded via Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov threatening the US with ‘fatal consequences’ for ‘miscalculations’.

The Kremlin today warned that Western army instructors training Ukrainian soldiers in the country would have no ‘immunity’ from Russian strikes, the latest development in the spat since the US gave permission for Ukraine to use some of its donated weapons in Russia.

‘Any instructors who are engaged in training the Ukrainian regime do not have any immunity. It does not matter whether they are French or not,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The US allowed Ukraine to use certain American weapons for strikes into Russia to help fend off the reopened Russian offensive in the northern city of Kharkiv, but stopped short of greenlighting the use of ground-launched ATACMS missiles, delivering devastating long-range blows.

Last month, Russia reopened its advance in Kharkiv region and quickly captured several villages.

Ukraine has struggled to repel the attack, despite the US offering an additional $275mn in military aid.

Russia’s push did, however, see the US concede the restrictions placed on only using its donations on Russian targets within Ukraine, for the first time permitting attacks on the other side of the border.

‘The hallmark of our engagement has been to adapt and adjust as necessary, to meet what’s actually going on on the battlefield, to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs, when it needs it,’ US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last Friday. 

Pilots of the “Sharp Kartuza” division of FPV kamikaze drones prepare drones for a combat flight on May 16 in Kharkiv region

In recent days Russian forces have gained ground around the Kharkiv region, which Ukraine had largely reclaimed

Near the border with Russia, Ukrainian soldiers prepare drones for combat on May 16

The Foreign Secretary said Ukraine was right to launch a strike on targets within Russia

Days later, the Netherlands said it would allow Ukraine to use its F-16 jets to carry out strikes in Russia. 

The use of the planes is also not limited to the border region near Kharkiv, as is the case for US weapons. 

The developments follow comments from British Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron, who said in May that he would support Ukraine using British-supplied missiles as it saw fit.

‘We don’t discuss any caveats that we put on on those things. But let’s be absolutely clear, Russia has launched an attack into Ukraine and Ukraine absolutely has the right to strike back at Russia,’ he told reporters during a visit to Kyiv.

The UK has supplied billions of pounds of munitions including long-range Storm Shadow missiles to Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces since Putin’s 2022 invasion.