FIRE & FURY
Watch moment Ukraine uses ‘flamethrower drone’ armed with flesh-melting thermite to burn Russians out of treeline
Watch the above video to see Ukraine using the tactical weapon
THIS is the moment Ukraine blitzed Russian soldiers with a "flamethrower" drone to wipe them out of their positions.
Incredible footage shows a Ukrainian FPV drone raining down flesh-melting thermite on a tree line understood to be occupied by Russian troops.
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The drone can be seen flying low just above the treeline as it throws flames to burn and wipe pit enemy positions.
Large plumes of smoke can be seen billowing from the trees as the Ukrainian drone blitzed Russian troops with the flamethrower.
Thermite, a mixture of metal powder and metal oxide is used in the making of incendiary bombs.
It burns at temperatures of more than 2,400C - being so hot it can burn through steel and concrete.
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And if it comes into contact with human flesh, it can melt through right down to the bone.
While the use of thermite as a weapon can be extremely dangerous, it is not banned by International arms control organisations to use against enemy positions in active warzones.
However, the tactical weapon has been used widely by Russians against innocent Ukrainian civilians since the start of the war.
It comes as Ukrainian troops were seen storming Russian trenches while dodging heavy machine gun fire from the enemy lines.
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Daring soldiers from Ukraine's Third Assault Brigade sparked a brutal counteroffensive after they were deployed in a forest near Kharkiv.
The clip, shared by Ukrainian military bloggers, shows the troops launching the raid at dawn after they were dropped from a military chopper.
Crack soldiers can be seen engaging in heated gunfights as they storm enemy positions camouflaged in the dense forest.
They raid enemy dugouts, storm through the Russian trenches and rescue wounded troops as they move towards the frontlines.
Russian troops on the other side try to thwart the Ukrainian advance using machine guns as they shower them with bullets, but daring Kyiv's forces continue to move forward and cut off enemy lines.
A brave Ukrainian soldier can be heard saying: "If I get into the trench line, I'll kill that machine gunner with my bare hands."
Russia has been desperately trying to regain the upper hand in Ukraine after Zelensky's forces pushed through into enemy territory on August 6.
This morning, Russian forces blitzed Kyiv with a barrage of missiles, injuring at least two people and damaging key infrastructure.
Kyiv's air defence units destroyed more than 10 cruise missiles and nearly 10 ballistic missiles as air raid alerts went off across the city, Reuter reports.
Heart-stopping video shows Ukrainian troops storming Russian trenches as they dodge machine gun fire
Just days ago, Russia blitzed Ukraine with missiles and drones that killed several people and sparked mass power cuts.
Sirens blared across Ukraine as Putin unleashed a wave of bombers to rain hell on Kyiv in a harsh response to the Kursk invasion.
President Zelensky Zelensky confirmed Russia horrifically used over 200 missiles and drones in the deadly strike, adding that "a lot of damage" was caused to the energy sector on Telegram.
A 14-year-old girl was among seven dead after barbaric Putin unleashed a wave of glide bombs on Ukraine.
The dictator's forces targeted a playground and an apartment building in Ukraine's eastern city of Kharkiv today injuring dozens more.
The State Emergency Service said 77 people were injured including 18 children.
Meanwhile, a separate Russian strike on a Ukrainian hotel killed an ex-brit soldier while leaving six others severely injured.
Rescuers discovered the body of Ryan Evans, who was a safety advisor for the Reuters news agency, in the rubble of a hotel in the eastern town of Kramatorsk.
Evans, 38, was killed after a missile struck the Hotel Sapphire where he was staying as part of a six-person team on Saturday, Reuters said in a statement.
Two of his colleagues were also injured in the blast and were being treated in hospital.
Meanwhile, Kyiv's daring forces have been pushing into villages across the Russian border since August 6 amid the first-ever invasion on Russian soil since World War Two.
Russians have been scrambling to defend Ukraine's audacious move, which sparked a "counter-terror" operation in regions of Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk.
Heart-stopping footage showed how brave Ukrainian troops have been gaining ground on Putin's land.
The Sun's Jerome Starkey inside Russia
By Jerome Starkey, Defence Editor in Russia
The Sun stepped into sovereign Russia – despite Kremlin threats to kill or convict us – to speak to ordinary Russians left stranded by their soldiers’ humiliating retreat.
Bomb blasts echoed over ruined buildings as Olga, 23, a taxi cab dispatcher, said: “I didn’t think about the war at all. I was just working constantly.
“Home, job, home. I didn’t think about anything beyond my personal life.”
All that changed on August 6 when Ukraine launched a surprise attack from neighbouring Sumy province and captured 1,300 square kilometres in Russia’s worst defeat on home soil since the end of World War Two.
Ukraine’s President Zelensky claimed the blitz was part of a master plan to help end the war.
Bomb blasts echoed over ruined buildings as Olga, 23, a taxi cab dispatcher, said: “I didn’t think about the war at all. I was just working constantly.
“Home, job, home. I didn’t think about anything beyond my personal life.”
All that changed on August 6 when Ukraine launched a surprise attack from neighbouring Sumy province and captured 1,300 square kilometres in Russia’s worst defeat on home soil since the end of World War Two.
Ukraine’s President Zelensky claimed the blitz was part of a master plan to help end the war.
And he stressed that ordinary Russians must “feel” the effects of the war unleashed by tyrant Putin.
Olga said her mother and brother fled their hometown of Sudzha, the largest Russian town now under Ukrainian control.
But Olga was cut off by fighting and unable to cross town to reach them before they escaped.
We met her in a temporary shelter where Ukrainian troops were providing food and beds for civilians left behind.
She added: “I stayed because I couldn’t leave. There was no evacuation.”
A statue of Lenin in Sudzha’s main square had been severely maimed – only part of his trunk appeared to remain on the pedestal.
Behind it, the town hall’s grand facade lay shattered by artillery holes.
A blue and yellow Ukrainian flag fluttered from a makeshift flagpole.
Graffiti on the cobbles mocked Russia’s defenders for fleeing.
It said: “Russians, learn how to fight. Your conscripts are rotting in forests.”
The Russian soldiers defending Sudzha were a mixture of border guards, conscripts and Chechens from the Akhmat battalion.
One of the Sudzha’s residents cursed them for fleeing so quickly
They said: “Our defence was so bad. There weren’t any soldiers. That’s why we are here.”
Around 600 civilians still live in Sudzha from a pre-war population of 5,000, Ukrainian soldiers estimated.
They said it was hard to tell precisely as many were sheltering underground.
While we were there a man came in who had spent the last three weeks in a cellar.
The troops said it was the first time they had seen him.
Pensioner Valentina, 76, another resident in the shelter, said she had tried to forget the war since she moved to Sudzha five years ago – from Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
She left to escape the fighting that was unleashed in 2014 when Russian-backed separatists broke away from Kyiv’s control.
Speaking from her dormitory bed, she said: “I never thought this war would be so big that it would come to such a little place like this.
“What is there to fight for here?”
Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin said Ukraine wanted Russian territory to use as a bargaining chip in any future peace talks.
Kyiv claimed the land was a buffer zone to limit Russian attacks.
Zelensky has also stressed the importance of capturing 600 prisoners of war to swap for captured Ukrainians.
The assault has boosted morale in Ukraine and changed the narrative of the conflict after months of grinding losses in eastern Donbas.
It has also turned the tables on and shattered the slowly calcifying myth of Russia’s inevitable victory.
She left to escape the fighting that was unleashed in 2014 when Russian-backed separatists broke away from Kyiv’s control.
Speaking from her dormitory bed, she said: “I never thought this war would be so big that it would come to such a little place like this.
“What is there to fight for here?”
Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin said Ukraine wanted Russian territory to use as a bargaining chip in any future peace talks.
Kyiv claimed the land was a buffer zone to limit Russian attacks.
Zelensky has also stressed the importance of capturing 600 prisoners of war to swap for captured Ukrainians.
The assault has boosted morale in Ukraine and changed the narrative of the conflict after months of grinding losses in eastern Donbas.
It has also turned the tables on and shattered the slowly calcifying myth of Russia’s inevitable victory.
NEXT TARGET: BELGOROD
Ukraine is attempting a second surge into Russia with troops eyeing the Belgorod region after smashing into Kursk.
Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the Ukrainians were trying to "break through the border", citing Vlad's defence ministry.
The city of Belgorod, which has a population of 340,000, is just 23 miles from the Nekhoteyevka checkpoint.
Reports vary on Telegram with another channel, Shot, claiming there was no fighting at Shebekino and Ukrainians were pushed back in Nekhoteyevka.
Shot said up to 60 soldiers and eight Ukrainian armed vehicles rolled into the border crossing but were met with heavy Russian fire.
Kyiv's forces are attacking border checkpoints as Putin's soldiers desperately fight back to defend their soil, reports say.
Ukraine's surge into Kursk had already threatened to spill over into Belgorod.
Belgorod citizens were urged to take shelter just days after the surprise Kursk incursion.
Governor Gladkov wrote in a Telegram message: "The entire territory of the Belgorod region is a MISSILE DANGER.
"Go down to the basement. Stay there until you receive the signal 'all clear missile danger.'"
Around 11,000 people were evacuated from the Krasnoyaruzhsky district in Belgorod, Russian outlet reported.
On Ukraine's side of the border, Vlad launched a major attack overnight - for the second night running - unleashing hundreds of drones and missiles.
Fifteen regions were hit and at least seven were killed.
Authorities said a hotel was blown away in the central city of Kryvyi, killing two, with two more dying in drone attacks in the embattled Zaporizhzhia in the country's southeast.
Ukraine was also forced to intercept strikes bound for the capital city Kyiv.
Fierce fighting boils on in Pokrovsk in Ukraine's east as Vlad vies to take the high-priority Donetsk town.
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It is being hotly fought over because it sits in the vicinity of Ukrainian supply lines.
The Kremlin's deadly strikes are set to keep igniting debate over whether Kyiv should be allowed to use Western weapons to strike deep within Russia, where they say attacks are being launched from.
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