The Ukrainian military just carried out its first-ever TB2 drone strike against pro-Russian separatists on Oct. 26, 2021, and successfully destroyed a howitzer artillery piece which was confirmed with aerial footage of the incident.

The strike was delivered using the Turkish defense firm Baykar's "Bayraktar" TB2 armed drone. In 2019, Baykar won a $69 million contract to sell six TB2 combat UAVs to Ukraine. The deliveries of the drones began in the summer of 2021.

Ukraine claimed the strike was retribution for an artillery strike that killed one soldier and wounded another. "In order to force the enemy to ceasefire, under the order of the Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine the ′′Bayraktar" was used. The unmanned aircraft did not cross the collision lines and destroyed one gun with the calculation of the Russian-occupation troops."

A spokesman for the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) Russian proxy force claimed the drone strike was a violation of the 2014 Minsk Agreement which forbids the use of combat aircraft along the line of contact.

The use of the TB2 by the Ukrainians has the potential to break the trench warfare stalemate. To see the irrelevance-rendering effect drones have on trenches, revisit the devastating Azeri footage from the 2020 Karabakh War. The strike may also cause a severe escalation from the Russian side, which may lead to the resolution this war needs.

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