Russian Investigators Hunt Ukrainian-Born Man Behind Drone Transport Network

Investigators have questioned the truck drivers who transported the drones used in the June 1 attacks on Russian regions. The men admitted they were unaware they were carrying weapons — they had been told they were transporting prefab cabins  instead of drones.

There was also one common detail in their testimonies — all the trucks belonged to a 37-year-old man named Artyom.

All trucks were loaded in Chelyabinsk

Alexander Z., a 55-year-old resident of Chelyabinsk and driver of the truck from which the drones attacked a military airfield in Murmansk Oblast, said he had received a job assignment from a local businessman to deliver prefab cabins from Chelyabinsk to Murmansk. After agreeing on the price, the “cargo” was loaded into the truck, and along the route, he was contacted multiple times by phone with instructions on where to stop. The final instruction was to park near a gas station not far from the airfield.

A similar story was told by drivers whose trucks carried drones that attacked the Ryazan and Ivanovo regions. Sergey, 46, also took a job out of Chelyabinsk, and while driving into Ryazan, drones were suddenly launched from his truck after its roof was ripped open. The same thing happened to a driver who stopped near the Ivanovo airfield.

Law-enforcers are now searching for the man named only as Artyom, the owner of the vehicles. Preliminary information suggests he is originally from Ukraine.

One other truck never made it to its destination and exploded en route along the Chita–Khabarovsk highway, where a section of road remains closed. The driver reportedly did not survive.

The owners of the warehouse in Chelyabinsk — believed to have been used to assemble the FPV drone containers — have also been detained. The warehouse is now empty, and samples have been taken to test for explosive substances.

Attack on airfields planned from within Russian territory

Ukrainian agents prepared the large-scale attack while operating inside Russia, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The operation — classified by Russian investigators as a terrorist act — was in the works for a year and a half.

A total of 117 drones and agents in three Russian regions were involved. Zelensky gave special thanks to Vasyl Maliuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), who is listed as a terrorist and extremist by Russia’s financial monitoring service Rosfinmonitoring.

On June 1, the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched a massive drone attack to strike several military airfields. Facilities in Murmansk and Irkutsk regions were hit, with several aircraft damaged. In Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions, the attacks were repelled.

In the Irkutsk region, several men were filmed trying to throw stones at the drones as they were flying out of the truck. The act was widely praised in Russia, with officials proposing to reward the men.