HUR members discovered the headquarters of the Rubikon unit in a dilapidated building in occupied Avdijivka in the Donetsk region. They sent there an FP-2 drone armed with a 105-kilogram warhead. “As a result of the strike, the officers and drone operators of the Russian ‘Rubikon’, who were in the headquarters, were killed,” according to the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper, in the HUR statement.
The Russian Rubikon specializes in the development and use of unmanned systems. Ukrainians admit that it is one of the best prepared units of the Russian army and that Moscow spends considerable resources on it.
The federal headquarters of the Rubikon unit is located, or at least until recently, was located at the Patriot Park exhibition center near the Russian capital. In September, her location was accidentally revealed in his program by Russian propagandist and moderator Vladimir Solovyov, so it is possible that she moved.
Rubikon has over a thousand members, divided into seven sections. It has its own “recruitment policy”: new “employees” receive starting bonuses of up to three million rubles (almost 740,000 crowns).
Unit with the highest priority
According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Svoboda (RFE/RL), Rubicon’s formal status is unclear because it does not appear in the official structures of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is headed by Colonel Sergej Budnikov, who started in the artillery and marines. Now he commands the unit that has the highest priority, and if he appears at official events, then alongside the highest representatives of the army and the Ministry of Defense.
Former US Marine Corps officer and Institute for Foreign Policy Research member Rob Lee said the Rubikon “can” hunt down enemy drone operators and disrupt logistics almost as well as Ukraine’s best drone units.
