UKRAINE – The spluttering roar of a propeller punctuates the perfect silence. Car headlights flick on, splitting the darkness. Their beams reveal not just a section of tarmac ahead, but one of Ukraine’s most top-secret weapons, controlled by its most clandestine agency. Stuck to the nose of the gray machine is a yellow emblem of an owl, wings spread and grasping a sword – the unmistakable logo of Ukraine’s defense intelligence, the GUR. Two pilots sporting the same owl patches on their fatigues make their final checks inside the car before a thumbs up: “Let’s go!”

A high-speed, 50-second chase ensues, before the 13-foot long, 23-foot wingspan AN-196 Liutyi drone disappears in an instant into the inky-black Ukrainian night. The drone’s destination is a target deep inside Russian territory. CNN was granted unprecedented exclusive access to one of Ukraine’s long-range drone units, part of the GUR. Its members call themselves the Long-Range UAV Unit.

Only two people were authorized to speak on the record, and then only using their callsigns: Serge, the long-range drone operations commander of GUR, and Vector, unit commander. Serge said he had personally overseen more than 500 long-range drone attacks into Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

CNN spent two days traveling across the country with the drone unit as it prepared to launch more than 100 drones overnight into September 29 on a mission into Russia. CNN is not disclosing the location of the sites visited for operational security reasons.

Their target: an ammunition facility, specifically train carriages sitting inside the depot loaded with recently delivered Iranian missiles, according to the Ukrainians. Sources told CNN in September that Tehran had recently completed the delivery of short-range ballistic missiles to Russia. Iran has vehemently denied supplying any. “Iran has NOT delivered ballistic missiles to Russia. Period!” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi recently stated on his X account.

The facility sits on the outskirts of the tiny village of Kotluban, in the Volgograd region of southwestern Russia. Long-range drone attacks have become an increasingly prominent part of the Russia-Ukraine war. As the land war has become more attritional, the air war has gathered speed, with the major development being in drone warfare. (CNN)…[+]