Huliaipole: Fire Point drones hit a Russian “Molniya” control centre inside an apartment block

A Russian launch and control point for “Molniya” strike drones in Huliaipole, in the Zaporizhzhia region, was hit by drones of the Ukrainian company Fire Point. The strike was announced on Thursday, November 12 by the 7th Air Assault Corps of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, accompanied by video of the operation.

The mission was carried out by the Corps’ 237th Separate Unmanned Systems Battalion “APACHI”, in coordination with neighbouring units. The target lay deep behind Russian lines, almost 10 kilometres from the line of contact, and was located by aerial reconnaissance, which intercepted signals and visually confirmed the presence of the installation.

The Russians had set up the “Molniya” control centre inside a five-storey apartment block, from where they directed attacks on Ukrainian positions. The operators of the 237th Battalion hit the building with Fire Point drones. Part of the building, antennas and other equipment were destroyed in the attack.

The Corps’ video opens with a map of the area and the label “UAV Molniya launch and control point”. Night footage follows, lit in red, in which crews assemble a large fixed-wing drone with a piston engine and propeller, fit the wings and prepare the launch. The last part shows thermal imagery from the drone’s camera as it approaches tall buildings of the town, with the target marked on a map in the corner of the screen. In the thermal image multi-storey buildings can be made out among lower houses.

Targeting the “brains” of Russian drones

The strike is part of a systematic campaign against Russian drone guidance centres. Just a day earlier Ukraine’s General Staff reported three control points hit in the Tokmak and Prymorne areas of Zaporizhzhia and in Pokrovsk in Donetsk, as well as a drone depot in Zalyman in the Luhansk region. “Every control point that is destroyed means fewer drones over the heads of our soldiers”, the General Staff wrote. On November 11 a strike on a drone base at Donetsk airport had also been announced.

The “Molniya” (“Lightning”) are Russian fixed-wing strike drones, used against Ukrainian positions and vehicles near the front. Fire Point, for its part, is the Ukrainian company that makes long-range drones and the Flamingo cruise missile. This time its drones were used against a tactical target, about 10 kilometres behind the line of contact. Huliaipole is now behind Russian lines, in the southern part of the Zaporizhzhia front.