At start of full-scale invasion we adapted 1946-era munitions for drones, 200,000 in total – Yelizarov
At the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainian forces had to adapt Soviet-era munitions for use with drones in order to effectively kill the occupiers.
As reported by Censor.NET, Colonel Pavlo Yelizarov (Lasar), commander of Lasar’s Group, spoke about this in an interview with journalist Dmytro Gordon.
He recalled one episode from the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
"We had a professional servicemember join the team, someone who understands munitions and what can be used with a drone.
He said there was a Soviet-design munition from 1946 – a cluster munition. It was dropped from Il-2 aircraft to hit an area and punch through tanks from above. Later, this design was abandoned as ineffective, but stocks remained in depots," he noted.
According to Yelizarov, the fighters manually converted about 200,000 of these munitions, adapting them for drones.
Hero of Ukraine
"For this, the person who came up with it was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine by the president," the commander added.
This was a massive amount of intellectual work. And the conversion process itself was dangerous and risky.
"Because you are dismantling 70-year-old munitions, with roughly 200 tonnes of them in a single depot, and if one explodes, the entire team will simply be vaporised. That is heroism," he added.
For more details, see Pavlo Yelizarov’s interview published on YouTube.
