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UKRAINE CUTTING EDGE DRONES ... The Military Show Ukraine's HOMEMADE Strategic Bomber is OBLITERATING Russia PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucjSBAtA8ss
Ukraine's HOMEMADE Strategic Bomber is OBLITERATING Russia The Military Show Dec 7, 2025 1.92M subscribers ... 323,167 views ... 9.4K likes #themilitaryshow #militarystrategy #militarydevelopments Ukraine’s Gorynych program transforms a simple French ultralight aircraft into a long-range, reusable strategic bomber capable of striking deep inside Russia. Built by a former businessman turned pilot and a team of engineers, this modified Skyranger delivers powerful precision attacks while evading major air defenses. Affordable, innovative, and highly effective, it represents one of Ukraine’s most remarkable wartime achievements and a dramatic leap in unmanned strike capabilities. Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: / @themilitaryshow #militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis #themilitaryshow SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/pq1yQYPu How this was made Auto-dubbed Audio tracks for some languages were automatically generated. Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess Transcript 0:00 “Gorynych” is the name of a multi-headed dragon from Slavic folklore, spitting fire and raining down destruction on its enemies. It’s also the name of one of Ukraine’s most impressive and effective military assets: a homemade strategic bomber that is utterly obliterating Russian infrastructure. Soaring through the skies like the mythical beast it was named after, the Gorynych drops bombs and carries out kamikaze dives, wiping Russian factories and other assets off the map, while leaving nothing but smoke, flames, and rubble in its wake. It’s another outstanding example of Ukrainian innovation to go along with the countless other extraordinary weapons, defenses, and strategies Kyiv’s commanders and engineers have come up with since the invasion began. We’ve seen Kyiv create AI-powered automated air defense turrets, maritime drones capable of shooting enemy aircraft out of the sky, and so much more, but the Gorynych may very well be the most impressive innovation of them 1:01 all. Here’s a closer look at what it is and what it’s capable of. According to an in-depth report published by the Ukrainian publication Babel, which was granted special access to the regiment that runs the Gorynych program – the 14th Separate Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Regiment – the Gorynych is based on a French ultralight plane called the Skyranger. Created by Best Off Aviation, which is based in Toulouse in the south of France, the original Skyranger first launched in 1990, though numerous additional variants have been developed and launched in the intervening years, including the Skyranger Vfun, Skyranger Vmax, and Skyranger Swift. Hundreds of these aircraft are in use across the globe. They measure up at approximately 18 feet in length (5.5 meters), with a wingspan of just over 31 feet (9.5 meters) and a height of six feet, seven inches (2 meters). Their empty weight is around 550 pounds (250 kilograms), with a maximum takeoff weight of a little over 1,200 pounds (560 kilograms), and they can carry up to 13 gallons (50 liters) of fuel. Performance-wise, the Skyranger’s Rotax 912UL flat-four 79.9 horsepower engine allows these 2:06 aircraft to reach peak cruise speeds of around 93 miles per hour (150 kilometers per hour), and they’re able to ascend up to 900 feet per minute (4.6 meters per second). They’re sleek and simple ultralight aircraft, popular with beginner pilots and recreational aviation enthusiasts. The team that made them could never have imagined that their planes might someday be used to bomb Russia, dealing literally billions of dollars in damage to the Kremlin’s assets and infrastructure. But that’s exactly what’s happening, and it’s all thanks to one man. Also known under the name “Gorynych,” this man has refused to reveal his full identity, but shared his extraordinary story with Babel’s reporters. Born in Western Ukraine, he spent large parts of his childhood moving around, living at times in the Far East of the Soviet Union and Kamchatka region, going on to 3:00 study economics at university before entering the world of business. He was exceptionally successful, owning and operating his own multi-million dollar company and enjoying a lavish lifestyle. But in the 2020s, his life would take a series of dramatic, unexpected turns. First, the COVID pandemic hit in 2020, bringing Gorynych’s business operations to a sudden stop. He decided to make the most of his newfound freedom to learn a new hobby and discovered a passion for aviation, first watching videos on YouTube before setting himself a mission to enroll in aviation school and obtain his private pilot’s license. He wasn’t alone. Aviation became quite popular far and wide around Ukraine during the pandemic. Almost all of the country’s main airports ceased commercial operations, paving the way for smaller aircraft to take flight and trainee pilots to hone their skills. New airfields opened up and those that could afford their own ultralight aircraft made 4:00 the most of the opportunities, with the likes of CEOs and high-profile businessmen, like Gorynych, signing up at their nearest private pilot schools. Gorynych quickly fell in love with flying and developed a close connection with his trainer, Maksym. Maksym was a lifelong lover of aviation, announcing his plans to become a pilot to his parents when he was just six years old. He became obsessive about aircraft, spending hours of his free time on sites like Flightradar24, tracking the movements of planes across the Kyiv region and beyond, studying individual aircraft and deepening his knowledge day by day. Once he was of age, he joined the National Aviation University, going on to complete his first solo flight in 2017 and achieving his pilot’s license soon after. His instructors were so impressed that they offered him the opportunity to teach other aspiring pilots. He accepted, first becoming an instrument instructor, then a multi-engine instructor, then 5:00 a night instructor. He helped train hundreds of students, including Gorynych, before being offered an even more exciting opportunity as a Boeing 757 with a newly founded airline: Supernova Airlines. He was supposed to start specialist training in 2022 and foresaw a thrilling career ahead in the field of commercial aviation. Gorynych, too, entered 2022 with hope and optimism. He’d been invited to participate in the government’s “Great Construction” project to improve infrastructure across the country. Then, Russia invaded, and any hopes or dreams the two men had for the future immediately went up in smoke. Soon after the invasion, Gorynych volunteered to serve in the military, despite having no military training or background. Like so many other citizens from various walks of life, he wanted to play his part in defending his homeland. However, unlike many of his fellow volunteers, Gorynych had multiple close connections within the Ukrainian government, 6:01 and one of his high-profile acquaintances offered him an opportunity he couldn’t refuse: the chance to join up with Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces to carry out special sabotage missions in occupied territories. Gorynych quickly contacted his old flight school instructor, Maksym, who agreed to join him. The two underwent training before being deployed to the Donetsk region to work with Avenger unmanned aerial vehicles. These light aircraft-style UAVs had a tactical radius of around 25 miles (40 kilometers) and could drop bombs weighing up to eight pounds (3.5 kilograms) on their targets, before heading back to base and using parachutes to land safely on the ground. Given his aviation background, Gorynych quickly saw the potential of weapons like the Avenger to deal massive damage to enemy assets. He accurately predicted that drones would have an important role to play in the war as it progressed, and he was eager to ensure that his 7:00 side gained some sort of strategic advantage in this rapidly-evolving sector. The Avenger was a good start, but Gorynych felt that the concept could be taken much further. He envisioned a next-level Avenger – a bomber that could travel hundreds of miles into enemy territory to carry out precise and destructive deep strike attacks. Not only that, but he also believed he had the skills and experience to bring that bomber to life. In early 2023, he got the chance to prove it. He and Maksym were sent to serve in different military units of the Special Operations Forces. Maksym became an instructor, training new recruits on how to use the Avenger effectively. Gorynych, meanwhile, transferred to a Spec Ops center near Bakhmut and got to work on building a bomber that would change the face of the war, forever. First, Gorynych needed a base – some sort of framework he could mold and modify to meet his ends. He settled on the French Skyranger, thanks to its impressive 8:00 tech specs, plus the fact that it was available to purchase in the form of $50,000 DIY kits, making it a significantly cheaper prospect than many other ultralight planes on the market at the time. Next, he needed a team. He sought out adept engineers with the skills and experience needed to refine and retrofit the Skyranger. He knew it wouldn’t work with its default design and layout; it needed major changes, including the implementation of an autopilot system that would allow it to take off, carry out aerial maneuvers, and land safely back on solid ground without any actual pilot behind the wheel. It also needed more fuel to go further than before, along with military-grade navigation and communication systems, plus, of course, some bombs to drop on enemy targets. In other words, Gorynych and his team needed to turn a recreational aircraft into a deadly weapon. Somehow, they pulled it off. After Gorynych gained access to the army arsenal, he discovered a huge stockpile of Soviet-era OFAB-100-120 aviation 9:06 bombs – the perfect firepower for his planes. He was also given access to a training ground where he and his team could carry out practice sorties and fine-tune the bomber’s design. Bit by bit, his project came together, but by 2023, Gorynych realized that he most likely wouldn’t be able to bring his bomber into the service with the Special Operations Forces, due to what he labels “military-political” reasons. Instead, he needed to transfer to a different unit – one with more freedom and flexibility. Fortunately, that unit already existed, and it had been formed by a couple of Gorynych’s Special Operations colleagues, codenamed Fidel and Kasper. Having seen the growing importance of drones and aerial attacks as the war progressed, these two officers reached out directly to Ukraine’s Commander in Chief at the time, Valerii Zaluzhnyi (Zah-loozh-nee), and convinced him that the country’s armed forces required 10:00 a new, specialized unit that would use drones both tactically and strategically for short and long-range attacks. That unit went on to become the 14th Regiment of the Unmanned Systems Forces. Eventually, representatives from that regiment visited Gorynych’s training ground where he, Maksim, and their fellow team members were able to show off their bomber. It took to the air successfully and completed a test mission, carrying out aerial maneuvers before accurately striking the skeleton of a training tank with an aerial bomb. The regiment’s commanders were impressed. They immediately understood that this new “Gorynych” drone had serious potential and might even be a game-changing addition to their arsenal. It still needed a few tweaks, like some communication improvements to ensure it reliably arrived at its target location, as well as a stronger supporting structure to keep the aircraft airborne for as long as possible, even in difficult conditions. But it didn’t take long for those improvements to be made, 11:00 and soon enough, the Ukrainian Armed Forces were deploying the Gorynych for real-world combat missions against Russian assets. We don’t know a lot about the vast majority of those missions, as almost everything related to the Gorynych from 2023 onward is strictly classified. No details of its missions have been publicly disclosed, and given the lack of available data, it’s impossible to accurately calculate exactly how much damage has been done to Russia as a direct result of this particular bomber drone. However, Gorynych himself has confirmed that the drone has hit factories and arsenals across Russia, as well as targeting oil and gas infrastructure, causing what he believes to be anywhere from $3 to $5 billion in total. And despite the huge secrecy that shrouds this project, the wider world has caught a couple of brief but memorable glimpses of the Gorynych in action. In April 2024, for example, images suddenly spread across Russian Telegram channels 12:01 showing an unmanned light aircraft that had crash landed and was lying upside down in a field, with one account, belonging to Russian military blogger Kirill Fedorov, posting: “Photos have appeared that 100% confirm the theory that [Ukraine] began to use light aircraft to attack Russia. As you can see, this aircraft is equipped with optics and an aircraft high-explosive bomb is attached to it. The space intended for pilots has been converted and contains electronics.” As Fedorov noted, the images showed that the craft had been completely converted from a simple recreational plane into a remotely operated bomber drone, and aviation experts around the world immediately recognized the plane in question: it was a Skyranger. Analysts then closely examined the photos to learn more about it, sharing their theories online and comparing the plane to another light aircraft that had been used in a kamikaze attack in Alabuga, only a few weeks prior. But among all the in-depth analysis, one tiny and easily missed detail went unnoticed. There was 13:04 a sticker attached to the plane’s fuselage, displaying the logo of Nikolaevsky Vanyok, a popular Ukrainian blogger. Gorynych himself attaches such stickers to many of the Gorynych bombers his unit sends out to attack Russia as a small gesture of appreciation for Vanyok’s work. On October 6, 2025, we got a much better look at what the Gorynych can do, when it was used in an attack on the Sverdlov (Svaird-lov) Plant in Dzerzhinsk (Zur-zhinsk), situated quite close to Nizhny Novgorod, Russia’s sixth largest city. The plant is a critical manufacturing location for industrial explosives. In fact, it’s the only facility in all of Russia to produce RDX, which is commonly used in plastic explosives like C-4, and HMX, which is a more powerful military explosive, often employed in nuclear weapons and rocket propellants. It also makes transmission charges for the mining industry, perforating charges for oil and gas production, aerial bombs, anti-tank 14:04 missile warheads, and anti-aircraft missile system warheads, too. In short, it’s a major player in Russia’s military-industrial complex and has been on the list of entities sanctioned by Ukraine, the European Union, the United States, and other nations for several years. According to reports, Gorynych left Ukraine and traveled towards the factory, dropping one of the aforementioned OFAB-100-120 bombs upon arrival, which has a high explosive payload of around 92 pounds (42 kilograms). It also reportedly dropped two 120mm mortar shells, before carrying out a kamikaze maneuver, detonating a concealed thermobaric device and whatever fuel was left in its tanks, leaving nothing behind for the Russians to analyze and learn from. After that initial impact on October 6, multiple additional Gorynych bombers followed, and footage soon spread across social media channels, showing the factory on fire, with flames licking the air and plumes of smoke 15:05 rising into the night sky. Local residents also reported hearing numerous explosions in and around the facility. And while Nizhny Novgorod regional governor Gleb Nikitin confirmed that an attack had taken place, the details depend on which strike we’re talking about. In the early-hours attack on October 6, Nikitin said that air defenses intercepted around 20 drones, with debris causing fires in the nearby residential area and one person injured. But when Dzerzhinsk was hit again later that same week, Nikitin described a much larger wave: “Last night, 30 drones were destroyed by air defense forces in the industrial zone of Dzerzhinsk. According to preliminary information, there were no casualties. The debris caused damage to several buildings, farm buildings, and cars.” In reality, given the significant size of the fire seen at the plant, it’s highly likely that more damage was done, but Russian officials are rarely, if ever, willing to acknowledge when 16:03 their most important assets and infrastructure are wiped out by Ukrainian attacks. And it’s important to remember that this is just one example of a Gorynych attack that actually made the news. There have undoubtedly been many more classified cases of these carefully constructed bomber planes carrying out deep strikes on targets far and wide across Russia’s vast territories, triggering fires, explosions, and leaving chaos and carnage in their wake. In many cases, the planes most likely don’t need to resort to blowing themselves up or nose diving into enemy facilities, either. They’re perfectly capable of dropping their bombs on enemy targets before turning around and flying back to base, landing smoothly and safely on the ground, all without an actual pilot in the cockpit, as confirmed in Babel’s report. That makes these drones dramatically more cost-effective than many other modern weapons in the Ukrainian arsenal. Missiles, for example, can only be fired once and either hit their targets or get intercepted en route. Many drones, 17:05 too, operate in a kamikaze fashion, hunting down their enemies before ramming right into them, blowing themselves up to deal as much damage as possible. Ukraine therefore has to find the time, money, and resources to keep on making these kinds of weapons in large quantities to constantly replace those that are used and lost. The Gorynych is different. It’s not only capable of dealing much more explosive damage than a smaller, simpler drone, but it’s also entirely reusable, and with each Skyranger kit costing just $50,000 to put together, plus the additional costs of the extra fuel and systems added in by Ukraine’s engineers, it’s easy to see how a single one of these bomber drones can represent incredible value for money. And even Russia’s air defenses have proven utterly incapable of bringing these bombers down. Again, as revealed in the Babel report, engineers and pilots have found ways to help the Gorynych travel through satellite signal suppression zones 18:04 with ease, hiding from all of Russia’s major air defensive systems, like the Pantsir, the Buk, and the S-300. Thanks to that, the 14th Regiment can launch their Gorynych drones with confidence and belief that each one will have a strong probability of not only succeeding in its mission and leaving the Russians with more damage to clean up and more bills to pay, but also make it back to base, ready to refuel, reload, and roll out all over again. And that’s exactly what’s happening on a regular basis, in the shadows, under cover of darkness, out of the headlines and news reports, Gorynych bombers and countless other Ukrainian weapons and innovations are giving the Kremlin nightmares, carrying out devastating deep strike attacks on the country’s infrastructure. Gorynych himself still attends the bomber launches. He still attaches little stickers onto the body of the planes and watches with pride as his team assembles each one, fuels its tanks, 19:00 takes it out to the runway, fits the munitions and their detonators, and prepares for take off. And it’s all thanks to his brilliant mind and passion for aviation that this incredible idea came to fruition. Thankfully, Ukraine has plenty of other people just like him – creative, determined, problem-solvers who continue to unlock opportunities and discover new ways for the country’s forces to defend their territory and strike back at their enemy. Learn more about how Ukraine’s incredible armed forces are taking the fight to Russia and causing trouble for the Kremlin in this video, which explores how Kyiv’s mastery of drone warfare, precision strikes, and military innovation has helped to even the odds in a war that never should have lasted this long. Or, discover more about Ukraine’s aerial superiority over Russia in this video, which looks at how Kyiv’s F-16 fighter pilots have proven more than a match for their Kremlin counterparts. Make sure to subscribe to our channel, too, and turn on notifications 20:00 if you haven’t already, so you can be among the first in the world to find out about the latest breaking military news from the war in Ukraine and other important conflicts around the globe.

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