Russian military personnel spoke about the operation of the Molniya UAV in the SVO zone.

The operators of the 123rd Brigade of the Southern Group of Russian Troops are using Lightning unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to strike at the enemy in the Seversk area. On Monday, October 20, the fighters told Izvestia about their experience of using rare drones.

Molniya is an aircraft-type FPV drone. In fact, this is an anti-tank mine. In an anti—tank mine, the TNT equivalent of the explosive part is 7.5 kg. That's what we're loading [onto drones]," said a soldier with the call sign Bach.

Izvestia correspondent Egor Kildibekov noted that the operators of such UAVs operate from protected firing positions that are hidden deep underground. The fighters only need to come to the surface to launch the drone into the air, which takes no more than five minutes.

In the same dugout, military personnel are assembling new "Zippers" and preparing them for combat work.

The most remote target that the fighters were able to hit with such a drone was a gas pumping station located 55 km away.

"Cumulative projectiles, high-explosive shells: all this is already ready for the duty shift. We always have at least 10 Lightning bolts on duty per day," another serviceman showed the arsenal.

In case of loss of communication with the operator, the drone switches to autopilot mode and continues flying towards the target in the specified direction. When the signal resumes, the pilot can return to the manual control mode of the drone in order to accurately dive into the enemy.

As a result of the use of "Lightning" in the Seversk area, a dugout and a house with personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) were accurately hit. The strikes on the targets were recorded by means of objective control.

Stormy weather: how villages on the outskirts of Dimitrov were liberated

Careful planning, flanking detours and artillery fire support helped our troops to occupy the settlements of Balagan and Moskovskoye

On October 19, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that Russian military personnel destroyed the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Chernihiv region. As a result of the strike, up to 15 Ukrainian militants and two off-road escort vehicles were also eliminated.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.