CNN
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Ukraine appears to be mustering a fleet of fire-breathing “Dragon drones” for its war against Russian invaders, a modern twist on a weapon used to terrifying effect in both world wars.
A series of videos posted by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on social media, including Telegram, on Wednesday showed a low-flying drone dropping large amounts of flames – actually molten metal – on Russian military positions surrounded by trees.
The incandescent mixture of aluminum powder and iron oxide, known as thermite, burns at up to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,200 degrees Celsius). If it wouldn’t kill or disable the Russians, it could quickly incinerate the trees and vegetation that give them shelter.
The thermite that falls from the drone resembles the flames coming from the mouth of a mythical dragon, hence the drone’s nickname.
“Strike drones are our wings of vengeance, bringing fire directly from the sky!” Ukraine’s 60th Mechanized Brigade posted on social media.
“They pose a real threat to our enemies, burning down enemy positions with a precision no other weapon can achieve,” the post continued.
“When our Vidar works, Russian women never sleep,” he added. Vidar is the Norse god of vengeance.
That fear-inducing effect is likely to be the main effect of Ukraine’s thermite drones, said Nicholas Drummond, a defense industry analyst specializing in land warfare and a former British Army officer.
“This is an extremely dangerous substance. Delivering it using a drone is quite novel, but if it is used in this way the effects will be psychological rather than physical,” Drummond told CNN.
“Ukraine understands it has a limited capability to produce thermite effect, and this is more of a niche capability than a new mainstream weapon,” he said.
But he recognizes the horror that thermite poses.
“I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of an attack,” Drummond said.
Thermite burns almost anything easily, including metals, so there is little to protect against it.
It was discovered by a German chemist in the 1890s and was originally used to weld railroad tracks.
But its military power soon became apparent, when German forces dropped it as a bomb from Zeppelin airships over Britain in World War I, according to a historical study from Montreal’s McGill University.
The Germans and Allies used thermite bombs in World War II, and also to disable captured artillery pieces by injecting thermite into the breech of the gun, melting it from the inside.
Ukraine has previously used thermite dropped from drones to permanently disable Russian tanks, according to Action Against Armed Violence (AOAV), a British anti-war advocacy group.
The thermite was “dropped directly through the hatch and would rapidly ignite due to its intense heat, destroying everything inside,” according to the AOAV report.
“This precision, combined with a drone’s ability to bypass traditional defenses, makes thermite bombs a highly effective tool in modern warfare,” the report said.
Thermite is just one type of incendiary weapon; others include napalm and white phosphorus.
The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs says incendiary weapons have the potential to cause enormous destruction and environmental damage.
“Fires caused by the weapon itself or ignited by it are difficult to predict and contain. For this reason, incendiary weapons are often referred to as ‘area weapons’ because of their widespread impact,” the ministry said on its website.
The United States used napalm in the infamous Tokyo air raids of World War II, which destroyed much of the Japanese capital, and the U.S. military also used napalm extensively in Vietnam.
The U.S. military also uses thermite in grenades; the U.S. Army’s Pine Bluff Arsenal produced the weapons from the 1960s until 2014, when it resumed production again in 2023.
Under international law, thermite is not banned in military combat, but its use against civilian targets is prohibited because of its potentially dire effects on the human body.
Human Rights Watch, in a 2022 report on incendiary weapons such as thermite, said the weapons are “notorious for causing horrific human damage, including inflicting fourth- or fifth-degree burns.”
“It can cause damage to muscles, ligaments, tendons, nerves, blood vessels and even bones,” HRW said.
Treatment can take months and requires daily therapy, and even if victims survive, they are left with physical and psychological scars, HRW said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow’s initial invasion of Ukraine was thwarted rather than seizing the capital, Kiev, and the two sides have spent much of the war fighting over much of the same territory.
Ukrainian forces, outnumbered and outgunned by their Russian counterparts, have proven adept at making innovative use of small drones to attack Moscow’s troops and equipment.
Ukrainian forces’ incursion into Russian territory near Kursk in August surprised Putin and boosted Ukraine’s confidence that it could win the war.
Kiev has accused Russian forces of using unspecified incendiary bombs against civilian targets in the early stages of the war, including in May 2022 in a village outside Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv.
CNN’s Nick Patton-Walsh visited the village of Cherkasski Tyshki shortly after the Russian attack and described scenes where “homes, fields and even the very air were burned to the ground.”
Ukrainian officials also accused Russia of using incendiary bombs in an attack on the city of Bakhmut last year.
The use of incendiary bombs would not lead to a quick victory for Russia, and Drummond does not believe it would change the dynamics of the battlefield in Ukraine.
“If Ukraine wants to have real influence, they need to be strong enough to force a proper breakthrough, like they did at Kursk. That’s what victory looks like,” Drummond said.
But thermite gives Russian forces new reason to fear Ukrainian drones, he said.
“There are examples of Russian troops retreating from positions after being hit by multiple drones. The more Ukraine can instill fear in them about drones, the more likely they are to succeed,” he said.
“Thermite maintains the pressure.”
