War in Ukraine: when kyiv attacks Russia with inflatable balloons loaded with explosives

Outclassed in numbers, equipment and ammunition by Russia, Ukraine has always been more ingenious in its way of approaching the conflict. Homemade drones, some made of cardboard, wooden rocket launchers to decoy the enemy, inflatable tanks... The country sometimes has to innovate if it wants to compete. This is what he apparently did again during the month of April, by launching attacks on Russian territory using... inflatable balloons loaded with explosives. On April 20, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it had foiled “a terrorist attack using two balloons” over the Moscow and Tula regions.

Five similar devices were also destroyed on April 18, according to the ministry. In March, the Russian news agency Mash reported the discovery, in a Russian forest near the border, of a converted Ukrainian meteorological balloon “carrying a kilo of TNT”. At least one other aircraft was destroyed in the Kursk region. In a speech on Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said 37 such Ukrainian balloons had been shot down since the start of the war.

According to the Russian press agency, the devices were designed to sow fear among the population. “They must fly over cities and drop bombs using GPS signals,” the media surmises, indicating that more and more of these balloons were being sent. In February 2023, Russia itself used balloons that it sent over kyiv. But they were instead used to gather intelligence on the positions of Ukrainian anti-aircraft batteries. At the time, a spokesperson for the kyiv army said on national television that these were “methods that have been used for a long time and are largely outdated”. “The enemy just wants to push us to waste our air defense missiles,” he said. However, it seems that kyiv has decided to adopt the same strategy.

In reality, we don't know much about these machines. The Ukrainian army has not yet communicated on this subject. But numerous images of balloons, stranded or in flight, and its components, have been relayed on social networks in recent days. They notably show a large black cylindrical tube, which makes up the balloon, a Bluetooth module, a GPS connector, batteries, a transistor and a voltage regulator. But also, more surprisingly, an empty soda bottle. According to an expert interviewed by the specialist blog The War Zone, it could be ballast to control altitude. A similar container was discovered on Russian balloons shot down over kyiv.

Considering the elements used, the development of these machines requires a derisory investment. The canvas itself, which resembles a large trash bag, can be found for as little as $20 on Amazon, The War Zone says. It could be a solar balloon, which uses the temperature of the star to rise and float. Or a helium balloon. The major disadvantage of this type of machine lies in the fact that it is at the mercy of the wind because it is not dirigible. Its precision is therefore undoubtedly low, despite the GPS module making it possible to coordinate the dropping of explosives. According to the expert interviewed by The War Zone, it could, however, carry a payload of one to 10 kilos, potentially more than certain Ukrainian homemade drones.

The use of balloons, whether killers or spies, is not new. War has always favored this type of stealth and low-cost device. In modern history, Japan massively used explosive balloons from April 1942, during World War II. In retaliation for the Doolittel raid, the first American bombing on Japanese territory during the Pacific War, the country of the Rising Sun launched no less than 9,000 balloons equipped with anti-personnel and incendiary bombs towards the United States in the space of five month. Only a thousand of them reached the territory, causing only minor damage.

At the same time, a similar maneuver - but on a much larger scale - by Great Britain had enjoyed greater success. Between March 1942 and September 1944, the British sent nearly 100,000 balloon bombs, including 53,000 carrying incendiary bombs, to Germany and its allies. These devices notably destroyed a power station, leaving a large area without electricity, and caused large fires, forcing German forces to mobilize precious resources. The Luftwaffe, for example, mobilized 250 combat planes to shoot down these balloons.

While this type of homemade weapons is unlikely to cause major damage to Russia during the war in Ukraine, it is a new string in kyiv's bow to disrupt the enemy on its territory. Although unreliable, balloons are undoubtedly the cheapest “long distance” weapon on the market and pose a latent threat in Russian skies.