There’s no denying that the Russia — Ukraine conflict has been shared in extensive detail on social media. As such, one of the best ways to stay ahead of what’s happening across the front lines of Ukraine, is to turn our OSINT skills to social media and analyse social media posts to find out about the conflict.

The Telegram wrap is a recurring piece that looks at interesting pieces of Ukrainian language information that have been posted to recently. With this, we aim to cover all the latest developments regarding drones and usage of the radio spectrum.

One thing to remember though. The posts are taken from Telegram and written up without any fact checking or additional analysis performed, so you’ll need to draw your own conclusions regarding authenticity and credibility.


The battle of the machines continues. Source: Telegram

Zala UAV & Machine Evasion

The first post reveals more developments in something we’ve covered in earlier articles. With machine vision modules cheaper than ever, they can be applied to various types of drones to help increase their survivability.


It references the fact that the Zala UAV uses a dual HDMI input machine vision system as a self-defensive measure to help defend against FPV air defense drones.

When it detects an incoming drone, the system applies immediate and sustained evasion patterns in an attempt to drain the battery of the attacking system.

The post also raises some interesting points about the adoption of strategies to counter this problem. Like most parts of the drone war, we can expect countermeasures to change and evolve as new strategies are adopted.

Microwave Drone Defense

The next post examines the concept of microwave (RF) based systems as an offensive tool against fibre optic drones. It notes that while currently, such systems are in the early stages of research, it is suitable for usage against fibre-optic based systems.


Microwave drone defense research will be ongoing. Source: Telegram.

Claimed to be a “miracle solution” against such systems, it is noted that in current designs, the available power limits the overall effectiveness of such designs beyond a certain point.


As you’d expect, energy levels required to overwhelm a system electronically are significant, but not impossible. It’s also mentioned that the Russian “Ranezt” system takes twenty minutes to charge for a single shot, giving it an effective range of up to 100 meters.

Systems that can reliably neutralise fibre drones are desirable on all sides of the conflict.


Defensive nets are still extremely useful. This system stopped an earlier attack that attempted to blow a mined bridge. Source: Telegram.

Drone Nets

With much attention given to EW and kinetic methods of drone defense, much simpler ways often fly under the radar. While we’ve seen plenty of cope cages (as well as fierce debate over their actual effectiveness), the reality is that simple systems like nets still play an ongoing role in the conflict.


While fibre optics are often more resilient than the equivalent RF-based system, this post highlights the effectiveness of netting in an attempt to prevent FPV drone attacks.


In the final seconds of this footage, the inbound drone notes a secondary drone that attempted to unsuccessfully attack the bridge was observed caught up in netting near the supports.


A new, wide-band video interception system has been put into service. Source: Telegram

Video Interception Stations

Drone detection systems now range from small, portable systems that are based on designs leveraging cheap and available systems like the Raspberry Pi, right through to systems that require supporting infrastructure that includes power generation and large, external antennas that cover a wide frequency range.


This post notes that an indigenous, Ukrainian based system is now currently in use across the front lines. While it’s a clean, low-profile design, the station is designed for wideband usage, being capable of operation across a wide frequency band.


The lightning operates at around 300–350mhz. Source: Telegram.

Lightning Drone

A short post can still be an informative post and this is a great example of that. It makes note of the lightning drone, along with a picture and it’s control frequency.


Lightning is a small, fixed-wing drone with a control frequency between 300–350 MHz. It appears to be armed, with the attached image showing a payload under each wing.


This one has crashed in a field, meaning it gives a bit of a look at the internals and overall design. It’s a simple design, with a small, twin boom tail.

Send The News

Have you got an interesting tip? Seen an intriguing Social Media post that you think needs some extra attention or research? We’re always looking for new stories that focus on current events and issues.

So, if you find something that you think is worth a story, send an email or find us on Twitter / X to send your story.

If you’d like to review the source channel on Telegram for today’s material, you can do so by visiting this link.

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