CNN10 2024-10-18




CNN 10

Inside A Secretive Drone Unit. Aired 4-4:10a ET

Aired October 18, 2024 - 04:00 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. We made it to the best day of the week, Fri-yay.

I'm Coy Wire. This is CNN 10. Before we dive into the weekend, we've got one more chance to download some knowledge and information into our brains.

So let's get to it.

We start with an update on the ongoing war in Ukraine. The conflict there goes back to February of 2014, when Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine.

Then in February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, starting the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II. Russia continues to gain Ukrainian territory, resulting in a refugee crisis and tens of thousands dead.

This week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented his victory plan to Ukrainian Parliament. The ambitious plan to end the war has five points, including NATO membership for Ukraine and proposals to strengthen Ukraine's defenses, like improving air defense systems.

The plan also calls for the continuation of the incursion in Russia's Kursk region, where Ukraine's military has taken over Russian territory as an important bargaining chip. The goal of the plan overall would be to eventually secure future peace talks with Russia.

The proposals come as Ukraine is facing several setbacks on the eastern front line. Russia keeps making incremental claims on the Donetsk region and continues to attack Ukrainian cities with drone and missile strikes.

Preparing for winter will be a major task in Ukraine, as Russia continues to attack its energy infrastructure. And reluctance from the West has been another setback for Ukraine. Leaders have had to toe a line of supporting Ukraine while avoiding being swept into a larger war with Russia.

Allies like the U.S. have repeatedly denied allowing Ukraine to use long- range missiles to hit targets deep inside Russia. And allies have been reluctant to invite Ukraine to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization while the conflict continues, which would lead to full NATO membership, which is founded on a principle of collective defense.

Without additional tangible support coming from European or U.S. allies, Ukrainians are using their resources prudently. CNN got rare and unprecedented access to one Ukrainian mission striking Russian targets.

Fred Pleitgen shows us how it all went down.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ukrainian drones attacking southwestern Russia, Russian air defenses frantically trying to take them down before they slam into their targets.

This massive drone strike carried out in late September by Ukraine's Defense Intelligence Agency, the GUR. And they granted CNN unprecedented access to the entire mission. Their target, a Russian ammo depot the Ukrainians say is storing missiles supplied to Moscow by Iran. Even though Tehran vehemently denies giving Russia ballistic missiles.

The launch location totally secret. The mission run in near complete darkness. We can only identify the unit commander by his callsign, Vector.

PLEITGEN (on camera): How fast do you guys have to be able to do all this now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): I hope it will be in 20-40 minutes.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): OK. After installing the warheads and punching in the flight path, they push the drones to the takeoff area, the pilots going through final checks. Then they get the go.

(On camera): The launch is always one of the most difficult and most sensitive parts of the mission. They have to follow the UAV very fast with their cars to make sure it gets into the air all right.

(Voice-over): The drones disappear quickly into the night sky. The GUR has been behind hundreds of long-range missions into Russia, they say, including this September attack on an ammo depot between Moscow and St. Petersburg, causing massive explosions visible for miles.

The Ukrainians believe they hit hundreds of missiles and explosives. And in July, they hit an oil refinery on Russia's Black Sea coast, causing a major fire there. In total, the GUR says, these drone units are responsible for about a third of a successful strikes deep into Russian territory.

(On camera): Operational security is extremely important for this team. So we're on our way to the next secret location right now. They remain on the move almost all the time. Right now, we're going to a place where they're going to do the detailed planning for the flight paths. And we will see the actual drones.

(Voice-over): The weapons depot is about 400 miles from the Ukrainian border in the southwestern Russian village of Kotluban. A major problem, a mesh of powerful Russian air defenses guarding the area.

The drone pilots try to find even the smallest corridors to avoid Russian radars. They gave us permission to show a simplified version of the flight path they calculated for this mission with dozens of waypoints and changes of direction.

But they'll also launched dozens of decoy drones like these, which they want the Russians to detect and to shoot down. They even put tinfoil on the wings to give them a bigger radar signature.

(On camera): So you want the Russian radars to see this and think that it's a bigger drone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Of course, yes, very good.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): But these are the actual strike drones. The Ukrainian made Antonov AN-196 named Ljutyj, Ukrainian for fierceness or rage. They carry up to 500-pound warheads and fly around 1,300 miles. And they fit into the back of these no-descript trailers for covert deployment.

The Ukrainian say they get good results with the Ljutyj drones. But what they really need is permission from the U.S. and its allies to use Western-supplied longer-distance weapons.

(On camera): Why do you need the permission for using Western weapons deep inside Russian territory?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): We want to win, we want to finish this war as soon as we can. And we understand that if you have better equipment, better weapons, we can finish it very quickly.

I don't want my son or other children to have war in the future. So we want to finish it in my life. So for protecting their life from such disaster like we received from Russia.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): So far, the U.S. is not allowing Ukraine to fire American supplied weapons deep into Russia as Russia has escalated its own aerial attacks against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure using heavy guided glide bombs, cruise missiles designed to take out whole aircraft carrier strike groups and nuclear capable strategic bombers.

All the Ukrainians have are their little drones, launching them in swarms to even have a chance to penetrate Russia's air defenses.

While the Russians claimed to have shot down the drones, a video posted on social media shows what appear to be those drones impacting and major explosions in the area of the arms depot. And Ukrainian defense intelligence showed CNN the unblurred version of this video. now heavily blurred for operational security reasons. And it shows 11 blasts coming from the same place, they say, so large, they're confident they hit their targets.

CNN was also able to independently verify through a source what seems to be a direct hit on the facility. We're not publishing the image to protect the source's anonymous but it showed an explosion at the facility and what seems to be wreckage scattered around.

A Maxar image shared with CNN shows the same heavily damaged building with some debris still laying on the floor, signs that the Russian military may have cleaned up the site.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

PLEITGEN (voice-over): A small but important victory in their ongoing covert war against a powerful enemy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: Today's story getting a 10 out of 10. Let the gourd times roll or attack. A very different kind of giant pumpkin created a comically chaotic scene in Ohio.

Bay Village police shared dash cam video of officers dispatched to remove a giant inflatable Jack-o'-lantern that rolled out into the road. And then in a spooky turn of events, the pumpkin appeared to swallow the officers trying to wrangle it. No humans or pumpkins were harmed, and the inflatable Halloween decoration was returned to its owners.

Keep your head on a swivel this weekend, everyone. I hope you have an absolutely awesome couple of days, but before we go, best part of the show, you.

Shout out to Pierce Middle School in Milton, Massachusetts. We see you warriors. And shout out to your Massachusetts Middle School principal of the year, Dr. Fish. Rise Up.

Make this weekend one for the books. Remember, you are more powerful than you know. I'm Coy Wire. It's been a blessing to spend this week with you.

END