Russia Using Drones to Deploy “Decoy Zombies” into Battle in Ukraine

By Bulletin Staff

In a new escalation of its continued war against Ukraine, the Russian military for the first time has used drones to carry what are described as “decoy zombies” into battle as part of a coordinated assault on Ukrainian positions, according to a report this week from an independent zombie research group.

In its report, the Romero Institute for Zombie Studies in Pittsburgh quotes unnamed Ukrainian and US intelligence sources and cites video evidence collected by Ukrainian soldiers from the front lines of the battle around the city of Avdiivka.

The Romero Institute has previously reported on Russia’s use of zombie soldiers in combat in Ukraine in contravention of the 1997 Geneva Protocol, an international agreement banning the use of undead forces.

In early October Russian President Vladimir Putin explicitly stated that Russia had withdrawn from the 1997 Geneva Protocol, justifying the move by saying that the US had never ratified the agreement. In response, the US government stated that while the Senate had not confirmed the agreement, the US had nevertheless adhered to the terms of the Protocol and had never deployed zombies into combat.

For its latest report, Romero said that it was granted access to video, shot in late October by a Ukrainian soldier, of a Russian counterattack against Ukraine’s line of defense east of Avdiivka, in the Donetsk region. Ukraine retook the city as part of its ongoing offensive to reclaim territory seized by invading Russian forces.

The Romero report states that the video footage clearly shows large quadcopter drones, roughly the size of Volkswagen Beetles, carrying what appear to be about 50 armed Russian soldiers across the field of battle before depositing their cargo near Ukrainian positions and turning back toward Russian lines, all the while taking Ukrainian fire.

The footage continues, according to Romero, showing the Russian soldiers walking slowly toward Ukrainian forces, who respond with heavy automatic weapons fire. The Russians move forward despite clearly being struck by the withering barrage, not taking cover and not responding with fire of their own – not even pointing their weapons in the direction of the Ukrainian troops.

Individual Russian soldiers in the video can be seen taking multiple shots to the body and even losing limbs under the Ukrainian fire. At several points, Russians appear to go down after taking direct heavy fire, yet they rise again and continue their advance.

As the Russians get within ten meters (about 10 yards) of the Ukrainian soldier who was recording the encounter, it becomes clear that the Russians are, in fact, zombies dressed in military uniforms and with what appear to be fake plastic copies of rifles secured to their bodies.

At that point, Ukrainian soldiers can be heard yelling “zombi” [zombie] and ” v holovu ” [in the head], after which the Russian zombie troops can be seen taking a series of headshots that finally bring them down in a pile nearly at the Ukrainians’ feet, the Romero report states.

Romero notes that the attack by the drone-borne Russian zombies coincided with a Russian assault elsewhere on the frontline, near the village of Kamyanka, northeast of Avdiivka, and the report cites intelligence sources who suggest that the zombies were deployed as decoys to draw Ukrainian forces away from the Kamyanka attack.

Romero Vice President of Field Research Alan DeMoro, who participated in the review of the footage, said in an interview that this first encounter with “decoy zombies” represented “a clear escalation of the Russian military’s use of zombies” in the Ukrainian conflict.

“We’ve seen the Russians deploy undead forces previously, particularly in the fighting around the settlement of Opytne in early September. But this is the first time that we’ve seen them use the living dead as essentially airborne assault troops with the goal of confusing and distracting the Ukrainians,” DeMoro said.

The use of the undead as an integral component of a combined arms attack across multiple points along the front is a new tactic for the Russian miliary, according to Alex McBluffski, an expert in the Russian military and Russian military strategy.

“Prior Russian doctrine, stretching back to the Soviet military, was to deploy zombies as part of defensive formations, or to position the undead behind their own troops to attack and devour any Russians retreating from the frontline,” McBluffski said. “If this report is accurate, the Russian military’s use of airborne decoy zombies suggests that they are evolving their tactical zombie doctrine.”

McBluffski added that high Russian casualties in the war, estimated between 88,000 and 150,000 killed, and the Russian military’s practice of sacrificing tens of thousands of poorly trained and equipped recruits in “human wave” attacks in the face of devastating Ukrainian defensive fire, could mean that the country is running out of troops to send into the “meatgrinder” during their assaults.

“They may be adapting to the realities of force shortages by attempting to use ‘zombie wave’ attacks. But obviously it is extremely problematical to direct a wave of the undead to assault a particular position. By using the drones, the Russians maybe simply trying to get the living dead closer to the living Ukrainians that they’re targeting.”

DeMoro said that it is notable that Russia appears to be employing more passive undead rather than more aggressive rage zombies.

“The rage variants would clearly be more effective for this type of operation, but they are also exponentially more difficult to work with and put your own forces at much greater risk. We’ll nevertheless be watching closely to see whether Russia introduces rage zombies onto the field of battle,” DeMoro said.

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