The war in Ukraine is a conventional conflict, but also adapted to these times. One of the tools that has evolved with the conflict are drones, which have ended up being used for military purposes by both parties. This same Thursday, Ukrainian soldiers have found in their territory the remains of what is apparently a drone for civilian use manufactured by a Chinese company (are known as ‘Alibaba drones’ or ‘DIY drones’). This was modernized and armed, and presumably used by Russia, as reported by CNN.

The drone was shot down in a Ukrainian forest whose location is not specified and its remains were shown to journalists from the US network by Ukrainian soldiers after assuring that they had shot it down. with their Ak-47 automatic weapons. It was about a Mugin-5 dronean unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) manufactured by the Chinese company based in the port city of Xiamen, on the east coast of the Asian country.

The chain cites some bloggers specialized in technology who assure that these devices are known as ‘Alibaba drones’as they have been available for sale for about $15,000 on Chinese market websites, including distributors Alibaba and Taobao.

Adapted to carry a bomb

The company Mugin Limited confirmed to CNN that it was the fuselage of a device of its manufacture and described the incident as “deeply unfortunate”. For the network, this is the latest example of the use of a civilian drone being modernized and assembled for use in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a sign that the patterns of warfare used by Moscow change rapidly.

Ukrainian soldiers explained to reporters that the drone was flying to very low height when it was located and close enough to be shot down with automatic weapons, and that the device had been adapted to carry a bomb.

The armed commercial drone did not have a camera installedwhich means it could not have been used for surveillance, and essentially makes it similar to a “dumb bomb,” according to Chris Lincoln-Jones, a retired British army officer and drone specialist consulted by the US network.

“This particular drone we’ve been looking at would be much more effective if it had a decent camera”, Lincoln-Jones said. He added that this commercial drone incident adds further evidence to the theory that Russia is not the military superpower the world might have expected.