Dramatic Ukraine War Photo Highlights Destructive Power of FPV Drones

Photo: Iryna Rybakova/Press Service of the 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (Courtesy Image)

Ukrainian military photographer Iryna Rybakova captured the moment a Russian first-person-view drone blasted into a vehicle in Kramatorsk on July 15 amid a reported increase in FPV drone attacks on the city.

No one was hurt when a Russian first-person-view drone slammed into a vehicle in the Donetsk city of Kramatorsk on July 15, but an image documenting the strike has captured the fearsome destructive power of the aerial weapon.

Iryna Rybakova and Max Bondarenko were driving through the suburbs of Kramatorsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on the afternoon of July 15 when the pair spotted a large FPV quadcopter fitted with an explosive warhead that appeared to be hunting for something to hit.

Staff sergeant Max Bondarenko attempts to shoot down a Russian FPV quadcopter moments before it targeted a vehicle in Kramatorsk on July 15.

“The drone was flying high then low, looking for targets,” Rybakova, a press officer with Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade, recalled to RFE/RL.

Rybakova and Bondarenko pulled over near a busy crossroads, and Bondarenko began firing at the quadcopter with his rifle. Within seconds, a blue SUV pulled into the intersection.

An FPV drone strikes a vehicle in Kramatorsk on July 15.

“I saw the drone fly towards the car, then a man jumped out of it and ran around the corner,” Rybakova says. The drone exploded directly into the driver’s seat of the empty SUV at the same moment Rybakova squeezed the shutter on her Sony Alpha 7R5 camera. She was shooting at only around ten frames per second, but caught the exact zenith of the explosion in an image so clear that small bursts of dust can be seen as shrapnel impacts a brick wall next to the car.

“I’ve never filmed anything like it before,” Rybakova said in a social media post documenting the incident. “I immediately saw that I had caught the explosion.”

Rybakova says the drone was of a type measuring 15 inches across. The large quadcopter variants are capable of carrying warheads, such as large mortar rounds, weighing several kilograms.

Dust and debris seen in the moment after the July 15 strike.

Kramatorsk lies 20 kilometers from the current front lines of the ongoing Russian invasion but has long been a target for unjammable fiber optic drones capable of flying tens of kilometers to strike targets. Since early July, Russian drone teams have reportedly ramped up FPV drone attacks on the city, including by reportedly landing “waiter” drones on isolated rooftops under cover of night. The stationary drones conserve batteries until dawn, then watch for potential targets that often have little time to react when the drones take off and attack.

On July 8, a 28-year-old woman was killed by an FPV drone in Kramatorsk, and on July 17 two civilian men, both in their 60s, were killed near the city by the same weapon.

Moments after the July 15 attack captured by Rybakova, well-known local volunteer Bogdan Zuyakov, who happened to be passing nearby, helped to extinguish the smoldering vehicle.

Bogdan Zuyakov (left) helps to extinguish the car after the drone strike.

The driver of the car was a Ukrainian serviceman, but Rybakova declined to give any further details.

“He said he had just left a [combat] position and was very disappointed because he had recently spent $2000 repairing the car,” Rybakova recalls. “We sent him all the [photos and video] so that he could crowdfund for a new car.”

Rybakova, who is one of the Ukrainian military’s most experienced press officers, has had multiple near misses since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, including when a Russian FPV drone targeted the vehicle she was travelling in, in October 2025.

She admits that it can be hard to calm down after intense missions such as the one on July 15. “I take sleeping pills,” she admits, “not every day, but after stressful trips.”