Ukrainian banker offers cash for drone terror in Russia
Days before a failed drone assassination targeting Putin, Ukrainian banking baron Volodymyr Yatsenko offered a $500,000 bounty to any weapons maker able to land a drone in Red Square.
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On April 6, Ukrainian finance and weapon’s industry magnate, Volodymyr Yatsenko, appeared on the Kiev-based TSN network and offered a cash prize worth approximately $549,000 USD to any national weapons producer that manages to land a drone inside Moscow’s Red Square during Russia’s upcoming Victory Day celebration.
Russia’s annual Victory Day commemoration marks the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s 1945 surrender to the Soviet Red Army. Each May 9, millions of Russian citizens participate in marches throughout the country to honor their nation’s triumph over fascism. In Moscow, citizens and government officials gather in Red Square to view musical performances by Russia’s national army band and a flamboyant parade of the country’s troops and military hardware. The ceremony typically features speeches from the Russian president and Commander of Russia’s Armed Forces as well.
Moscow announced the cancellation of Victory Day parades in its border region this April, following a surge of drone activity in the territory throughout the first months of this year.
On May 2, The Guardian downplayed threats of Ukrainian terrorist violence in Russia, stating that while a “Ukrainian drone attack on Red Square during the Victory Day military parade would be humiliating for Putin,” his government was not calling off Victory Day marches “out of concern for public safety,” but due to a “paranoid obsession” that citizens may hijack the rallies to make statements about the current war.
The Guardian offered no evidence to support its portrayal of Putin as an irrational actor. What’s more, the center-left British paper neglected to mention Ukraine’s “Army of Drones” campaign, or the fact that Yatsenko, a powerful Ukrainian oligarch, is offering a cash prize for an aerial assault on the Red Square event.
Characterizing the upcoming the Red Square celebration as a “very legitimate” military target during his April 6 interview with TSN, Yatsenko revealed that his own weapons company, Dovbush, is already “warming up” for the event. He proceeded to credit Dovbush with operating a drone discovered near a railway in New Moscow on March 28. At the time, Ukrainian media reported the drone was inscribed with Kiev’s Nazi-era battlecry, “Glory to Ukraine.”
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