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  • Hello, everyone.

  • We made it to the best day of the week, Fri-yay.

  • I'm Coy Wire.

  • This is CNN 10.

  • Before we dive into the weekend, we've got one more chance to download some knowledge and information into our brains, so let's get to it.

  • We start with an update on the ongoing war in Ukraine.

  • The conflict there goes back to February of 2014, when Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine.

  • Then, in February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, starting the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II.

  • Russia continues to gain Ukrainian territory, resulting in a refugee crisis and tens of thousands dead.

  • This week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented his victory plan to Ukrainian Parliament.

  • The ambitious plan to end the war has five points, including NATO membership for Ukraine and proposals to strengthen Ukraine's defenses, like improving air defense systems.

  • The plan also calls for the continuation of the incursion in Russia's Kursk region, where Ukraine's military has taken over Russian territory as an important bargaining chip.

  • The goal of the plan overall would be to eventually secure future peace talks with Russia.

  • The proposals come as Ukraine is facing several setbacks on the eastern front line.

  • Russia keeps making incremental claims on the Donetsk region and continues to attack Ukrainian cities with drone and missile strikes.

  • Preparing for winter will be a major task in Ukraine, as Russia continues to attack its energy infrastructure.

  • And reluctance from the West has been another setback for Ukraine.

  • Leaders have had to toe a line of supporting Ukraine while avoiding being swept into a war with Russia.

  • Allies like the U.S. have repeatedly denied allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles to hit targets deep inside Russia.

  • And allies have been reluctant to invite Ukraine to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization while the conflict continues, which would lead to full NATO membership, which is founded on a principle of collective defense.

  • Without additional tangible support coming from European or U.S. allies, Ukrainians are using their resources prudently.

  • CNN got rare and unprecedented access to one Ukrainian mission striking Russian targets.

  • Fred Plankin shows us how it all went down.

  • Ukrainian drones attacking southwestern Russia, Russian air defenses frantically trying to take them down before they slam into their targets.

  • This massive drone strike carried out in late September by Ukraine's defense intelligence agency, the G.U.R.

  • And they granted CNN unprecedented access to the entire mission.

  • Their target, a Russian ammo depot, the Ukrainians say is storing missiles supplied to Moscow by Iran, even though Tehran vehemently denies giving Russia ballistic missiles.

  • The launch location totally secret.

  • The mission run in near complete darkness.

  • We can only identify the unit commander by his call sign, Vector.

  • How fast do you guys have to be able to do all this now?

  • I hope it will be in 20, 40 minutes.

  • After installing the warheads and punching in the flight path, they push the drones to the takeoff area.

  • The pilots going through final checks, then they get to go.

  • The launch is always one of the most difficult and most sensitive parts of the mission.

  • They have to follow the UAV very fast with their cars to make sure it gets into the air all right.

  • The drones disappear quickly into the night sky.

  • The G.U.R. has been behind hundreds of long-range missions into Russia, they say, including this September attack on an ammo depot between Moscow and St.

  • Petersburg, causing massive explosions visible for miles.

  • The Ukrainians believe they hit hundreds of missiles and explosives.

  • And in July, they hit an oil refinery on Russia's Black Sea coast, causing a major fire there.

  • In total, the G.U.R. says these drone units are responsible for about a third of the successful strikes deep into Russian territory.

  • Operational security is extremely important for this team, so we're on our way to the next secret location right now.

  • They remain on the move almost all the time.

  • Right now, we're going to a place where they're going to do the detailed planning for the actual drones.

  • The weapons depot is about 400 miles from the Ukrainian border in the southwestern Russian village of Kotluban, a major problem, a mesh of powerful Russian air defenses guarding the area.

  • The drone pilots try to find even the smallest corridors to avoid Russian radars.

  • They gave us permission to show a simplified version of the flight path they calculated for this mission, with dozens of waypoints and changes of direction.

  • But they'll also launch dozens of decoy drones like these, which they want the Russians to detect and to shoot down.

  • They even put tin foil on the wings to give them a bigger radar signature.

  • So you want the Russian radars to see this and think that it's a bigger drone?

  • Yes, of course.

  • Very good.

  • But these are the actual strike drones.

  • The Ukrainian-made Antonov AN-196, named Luty, Ukrainian for fierceness or rage.

  • They carry up to 500 pound warheads and fly around 1,300 miles.

  • And they fit into the back of these nondescript trailers for covert deployment.

  • The Ukrainians say they get good results with the Luty drones, but what they really need is permission from the U.S. and its allies to use Western-supplied, longer-distance weapons.

  • Why do you need the permission for using Western weapons deep inside Russian territory?

  • We want to win.

  • We want to finish this war as soon as we can.

  • And we understand that if we have better equipment, better weapon, we can finish it very quickly.

  • I don't want my son or other children to have a war in the future.

  • So I want to finish it in my life.

  • So for protecting their life from such disaster like we received from Russia.

  • So far, the U.S. is not allowing Ukraine to fire American-supplied weapons deep into Russia, as Russia has escalated its own aerial attacks against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure using heavy guided-glide bombs, cruise missiles designed to take out whole aircraft carrier strike groups, and nuclear-capable strategic bombers.

  • All the Ukrainians have are their little drones, launching them in swarms to even have a chance to penetrate Russia's air defenses.

  • While the Russians claim to have shot down the drones, a video posted on social media shows what appear to be those drones impacting, and major explosions in the area of the arms depot.

  • And Ukrainian defense intelligence showed CNN the unblurred version of this video, now heavily blurred for operational security reasons.

  • And it shows 11 blasts coming from the same place.

  • They say so large, they're confident they hit their targets.

  • CNN was also able to independently verify through a source what seems to be a direct hit on the facility.

  • We're not publishing the image to protect the source's anonymity, but it showed an explosion at the facility and what seems to be wreckage scattered around.

  • A Maxar image shared with CNN shows the same heavily damaged building with some debris still laying on the floor, signs that the Russian military may have cleaned up the site.

  • A small but important victory in their ongoing covert war against a powerful enemy.

  • Today's story, getting a 10 out of 10, let the gourd times roll, or attack.

  • A very different kind of giant pumpkin created a comically chaotic scene in Ohio.

  • Bay Village police shared dash cam video of officers dispatched to remove a giant inflatable jack-o-lantern that rolled out into the road.

  • And then in a spooky turn of events, the pumpkin appeared to swallow the officers trying to wrangle it.

  • No humans or pumpkins were harmed, and the inflatable Halloween decoration was returned to its owners.

  • Keep your head on a swivel this weekend, everyone.

  • I hope you have an absolutely awesome couple of days, but before we go, best part of the show, you.

  • Shout out to Pierce Middle School in Milton, Massachusetts.

  • We see you, warriors.

  • And shout out to your Massachusetts Middle School Principal of the Year, Dr. Fish Rise Up.

  • Make this weekend one for the books.

  • Remember, you are more powerful than you know.

  • I'm Coy Wire.

  • It's been a blessing to spend this week with you.

Hello, everyone.

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Inside A Secretive Drone Unit | October 18, 2024

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    Maggie Lin posted on 2024/10/18
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