Andrey Filatov was attacked by a radio-controlled UAV along a logistics route on a key sector of the frontline
Russian war correspondent Andrey Filatov on Saturday published dramatic video footage of him narrowly dodging a Ukrainian first-person-view (FPV) suicide drone that exploded just a few meters away from the journalist. The day before, multiple Ukrainian outlets reported that he went missing on the front lines of the conflict.
On Saturday, Filatov published a video that showed him riding a motorcycle while being pursued by a Ukrainian suicide drone. When warned of an incoming UAV, he turns the motorbike aside and ducks as it whirrs past and explodes just a few meters ahead of him.
According to the journalist, he was checking a radio interference blind spot along a Russian logistics route, which was created when an electronic jammer post along it was moved. This made the area vulnerable to Ukrainian radio-controlled drones.
Russian war correspondent and drone specialist Andrey Filatov survives an extremely close call in the Pokrovsk direction pic.twitter.com/eaWfuTD4AI
— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) July 26, 2025
“[Ukrainian forces] began to see further, and the road ended up in radio shadow,” he wrote in a Telegram post on Saturday. He rode too far ahead of his companions, who had a jamming unit mounted on their car, and had to “dodge” the drone, Filatov explained.
The development of jamming technology has made radio-controlled drones far less effective and has increasingly forced both sides in the Ukraine conflict to use optic cable-controlled UAVs. These drones are slower, but are entirely immune to radio interference.
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The area where Filatov was attacked is situated along the Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) sector of the frontline, where Russian forces are advancing to encircle the major Ukrainian logistics hub city.