Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
The war over Ukraine’s skies has quietly moved off the battlefield and into the Russian post.
Ukraine’s intelligence services have spent nearly two years hunting the pilots behind Russia’s expanding fleet of first-person view drones, the small, cheap kamikaze machines that now shape much of the front line. Instead of chasing the drones, Kyiv has repeatedly gone after the people flying them.
On Monday, Nov. 2, Russia’s Federal Security Service said it had intercepted a batch of booby-trapped FPV drone goggles sent by Russian Post to a serviceman in Volgograd Oblast, claiming the devices were rigged to kill the operator the moment they were switched on.
The agency described thwarting “a series of sabotage and terrorist attacks using improvised explosive devices concealed inside FPV drone goggles” intended for troops in the “special military operation” zone, as its official statement is quoted by TASS.
Ukraine has not yet reacted to the Russian claims.
Fans replaced with plastic explosives
Explosive ordnance specialists found that the headsets, Chinese-made Skyzone Cobra X v4 models used widely by Russian drone units, had their cooling fans removed and replaced with improvised explosive devices, according to the FSB account carried by TASS. The charges were wired to detonate when the goggles were powered on, placing the blast directly against the operator’s temple.
The alarm was raised when a Russian serviceman in Volgograd Oblast became suspicious of two pairs of goggles he had received from a self-styled volunteer group and handed them to the FSB, independent Russian outlet Meduza reported. X-ray screening revealed the hidden charges, and a wider sweep turned up more identical devices in the mail system.
A refined replay of the February 2025 attack
The method tracks a sabotage operation that Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate, known as HUR, carried out in early 2025. According to a HUR source who spoke to the Kyiv Independent in February 2025, the agency bought a large batch of goggles, fitted them with explosives and a detonation mechanism, and had Russian volunteer channels pass them to drone units “in coordination” with the service.
Between February 4 and 7, 2025, eight Russian drone operators were injured when roughly 15 grams of plastic explosive hidden behind the fan housing of their Skyzone Cobra X v4 goggles detonated on activation. Several of the pilots were reported to have lost their sight.
FSB warns volunteer networks
The FSB said Ukrainian operatives are using anonymous Telegram accounts, posing as patriotic donors to reach Russian humanitarian groups and individual soldiers, and asking recipients for “video messages of gratitude” to post on social media. The agency urged volunteers not to accept gear from unverified contacts, warning that explosives have also been disguised as power banks, speakers, perfume sets and heated shoe insoles.
The Volgograd branch of the FSB has opened a criminal case covering illegal trafficking in explosives and terrorism, and investigators say efforts to identify those behind the shipment are ongoing.
