A military tech adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky raised eyebrows Wednesday when he claimed to have made an unsettling discovery among the wreckage of Russia’s latest drone barrage. Serhiy “Flash” Beskrestnov, appointed by Zelensky in July, said one of Moscow’s drones was carrying what appeared to be a specially designed charge to scythe through thick metal structures such as reinforced pylons, bridges and other key infrastructure. The warning landed on the same day Russia’s Defense Ministry publicly said its forces had struck a litany of critical infrastructure in and around the Ukrainian capital, including Kyiv’s hydroelectric plant, a thermal power plant, a high-voltage substation and a battery-storage park.
Moscow separately claimed a strike on the De Novo data center in Kyiv, which it described as a “major internet-traffic exchange point”. Russia has spent years trying to batter Ukraine into submission, to no avail. Now, as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s drones become faster, more sophisticated, more accurate and more resilient to countermeasures, Moscow is moving to target the connective tissue that keeps Ukraine standing.
Beskrestnov said the jet-powered drone recovered on Wednesday carried what he called a “cumulative-cutting” warhead: a 40-kilogram main explosive charge alongside four additional “modules." This layout focuses the explosive energy to slice through thick metal structures, rather than dispersing it more broadly. The official’s diagnosis has not yet been backed by an independent technical report, but if correct, it suggests Russia has developed a jet-powered drone optimized to sever the reinforced structures underpinning Ukraine’s energy networks, including “high-voltage pylons,” as Beskrestnov suggests. This is merely the latest example of how Russia’s strike strategy is maturing.
On August 22, Putin warned Ukraine had “opened Pandora’s box” by attacking Russian commercial and logistics sites used by the likes of Wildberries and Ozon, threatening retaliation against the “most sensitive sectors” of its economy. Eight days later, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had received orders to prepare mass strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities, and exactly one month ago, Putin publicly confirmed the instruction. Communications is also a sector particularly attractive to Russian drone operators.
Kyivstar, Ukraine’s largest mobile operator and the first Ukrainian company listed on a U.S. stock exchange, was repeatedly hit this month. A drone damaged its engineering office in Kyiv on September 11—the first of several attacks that damaged company facilities, including its Kyiv headquarters. Other attacks damaged facilities used by various internet providers and data centers.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has openly celebrated strike campaigns on Vodafone Ukraine, Datagroup, Ukrtelecom and De Novo, portraying them as military communications targets. Fortunately, Ukrainian foresight has helped limit the damage. Datagroup said its customer data survived and its services continued running from backup sites because, like many Ukrainian public and private organizations, it had deliberately built redundancy into its infrastructure.
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