It appears Ukrainian intelligence has attempted to do its own version of the Israeli pager bomb attacks that decimated many Hezbollah commanders in September 2024.
Russian authorities announced Monday the uncovering of a bizarre and twisted plot involving boobytrapped goggles for military drone operators.
The FSB security service said Monday it thwarted a shipment of drone goggles rigged with explosives that were meant to be distributed across drone units.
“During an X-ray examination, explosives specialists established that Ukrainian special services had embedded improvised explosive devices into the first-person view goggles where cooling fans are normally placed,” the FSB said.
Per the official statement and claims, the explosives would have detonated the moment the goggles were turned on, resulting in immediate death or injury.
It was undisclosed just how many headsets were intercepted, but likely border authorities are on high alert protecting against any further shipments or severe security breaches.
The rigged shipment in question was first discovered in the southern Volgograd region – but then other shipments were intercepted elsewhere. The shipments were presented as part of ‘volunteer’ donations.
This isn’t the first time that electronic items had bombs planted in them allegedly by Ukrainian intelligence operatives. Russian authorities are on the lookout for pontentially tampered items including speaker systems, power banks, laptops, or even car parts.
The incident is being compared to the prior similar Israeli operation which was years in planning that rocked Lebanon at the height of the recent Israel-Hezbolllah war there. As we featured at the time:
Former Mossad agents revealed new details of Israel’s pager and walkie-talkie terror attacks carried out against members of Hezbollah in interviews with the CBS News program 60 Minutes this week..
According to a former Israeli intelligence agent known as Michael, Hezbollah bought more than 16,000 of the exploding devices. When Mossad chief David Barnea gave the green light for the attack in September, the pagers and walkie-talkies were detonated on subsequent days.
Some 42 people were killed, including two children, while about 4,000 were injured. Many lost their hands and eyes or had their stomachs ripped open by the explosions. Michael said the walkie-talkie batteries, which included explosive devices, were made in Israel at a Mossad facility.
Drone warfare has become front and center in the longrunning Ukraine war, and has fundamentally transformed the battlefield. And so drone parts and operating equipment continue to be in high demand among both warring sides.
In some cases loitering drones have even been known to attack and bomb single individuals in gruesome scenes. Both sides have been deploying these tactics.
