To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
A Ukrainian grandmother managed to render a Russian drone useless after taking out a fibre-optic spool from the weapon.
Footage showed the elderly woman in a red coat leaning over to open the drone’s fibre-optic storage compartment.
After removing it, she lifted the useless drone and walked away without a second thought.
Russian drones operate with fibre-optic cables, which allow the weapons to be operated in real time through video and remote control.
Once the lines are severed or removed, the operator immediately loses control of the weapon.
The grandmother has been hailed as ‘amazing’, with one Ukrainian commentator writing: ‘God bless her.’
Sign up for all of the latest stories
Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.
Another said: ‘Moral of the story: don’t f**k with Ukrainian grandmas.’
In 2022, it was reported that a grandmother in Kyiv managed to disable a Russian drone by throwing a jar of pickled tomatoes at it.
The woman’s granddaughter, Elena, confirmed the story and said her grandmum had been smoking on the balcony when she heard the weapon buzzing.
Grabbing the nearest heavy thing near her – in this case, a jar of pickled tomatoes and plums – she threw it at the drone and then disposed of the remains.
In May, it was reported that Putin was beginning to stockpile ‘unkillable’ fibre-optic drones for a potential assault on NATO nations.
Putin diverted huge numbers of next-generation FPV drones away from the Ukrainian front and into rear depots since late 2025.
The Kremlin may already have amassed up to 130,000 fibre-optic drones, a stockpile that could rise to 200,000 by the end of summer.
FPV drones are especially dangerous because they use hair-thin fibre-optic cables rather than radio signals, making them far harder to jam electronically by NATO defences.
Russian military insiders believe the weapons could overwhelm Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the opening stages of an assault designed to shock Europe into submission before NATO can fully react.
The Kremlin sees the Baltic states as uniquely vulnerable because, although they possess advanced electronic warfare capabilities, they lack Ukraine’s combat experience with mass drone warfare.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.