Russia aimed what may have been an Iskander missile at apparent high-value targets—and missed. The drone-hunting plane or planes the Russians hoped to blow up weren’t there. 

On or just before 23 May, Russia’s strike complex—aerial or satellite intel cueing Russian missile strikes across Ukraine—identified what the Russian planners clearly believed were active Ukrainian warplanes at an airfield in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, 50 km from the front line in southern Ukraine.

A ballistic missile, potentially a $3 million Iskander missile—one of Russia’s best missiles—streaked down. The Russian missile strike turned the airfield into flames. 

The targets, according to Russian bloggers, were three propeller-driven “drone-destroyers.” A clear reference to the old Yakovlev Yak-52 piston-engine training planes Ukrainian forces fly on anti-drone patrols using Russian missile defense tactics.

Yak-52s would’ve been worthwhile targets for Russian missiles. Ukrainian airmen have been taking charge of the 1970s-vintage planes, apparently buying or borrowing them from civilian flying clubs, and flying them over front-line cities in southern Ukraine with a pilot in the front seat and a shotgun-armed gunner in the back seat.

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Ukraine’s WWI-style drone hunter worked so well that Russia had to steal the idea

The shotgun-armed Yak-52s—inexpensive, slow-flying, and maneuverable—are perfect drone hunters that have frustrated Russian missile targeting. In a heady three months starting last May, one Ukrainian Yak-52 shot down a large number of Russian drones over Kherson Oblast, prompting increased Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian positions.

Fans of the World War I-style barnstormer posted videos and photos of the Yak-52 in action and on the ground. A growing number of kill markings on the side of the old trainer spoke to its effectiveness against Russian missiles and drones. It worked so well that the Ukrainian intelligence directorate also began training gunners to hunt Russian unmanned aerial vehicles from locally-made Aeroprakt A-22 sport planes.

That first Yakovlev drone killer was so irritating to Russian planners that, in July, they targeted the plane at its apparent base near Odesa using an Iskander missile strike. On 15 July, a Russian drone surveyed the airfield, pinpointing several parked Ukrainian UAVs, as well as hangars where the Yak-52 may have sheltered.

Successful and unsuccessful Russian missile strikes on Ukraine’s drone hunters

An Iskander missile streaked in, exploding between the drones and the hangars. One analyst scrutinized video and satellite imagery and concluded that the Russian missile strike damaged three drones and several hangars on 15 July.

It’s unclear whether the Yak-52 was in one of the damaged hangars when the Russian missile hit. But it’s telling that, after the Iskander missile strike, there were no new sightings of the famous piston plane.

There are scores of Yak-52s in Ukraine. And there was nothing stopping the Ukrainian defense ministry from acquiring a replacement plane after the Russian missile attack. Eight months later, a second Yak-52 drone killer took to the air. 

A screengrab from the video feed of a Russian surveillance drone that circulated online on 24 March depicted a dramatically painted Yak-52 maneuvering into position so its back-seat gunner can take a shot at the drone with a rifle, despite the threat of Russian missile strikes.

It was that plane, or its equivalents, that the Russians were apparently targeting with their Iskander missile on 23 May—obviously hoping to duplicate their July success with another precise Russian missile strike.

Footage of Russian missile strike on a small airfield located near Kyslychuvatka in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

The only planes stationed at that airport are Soviet-era Antonov An-2 biplanes. As Google Earth satellite imagery show, those An-2s have been there for years (pic… pic.twitter.com/wxRkIFFZpE

— Status-6 (Military & Conflict News) (BlueSky too) (@Archer83Able) May 23, 2025

A four-ton, 500-km-range Iskander missile is a powerful weapon in Russia’s arsenal. And the Russian deep strike complex using these missiles is a constant threat to Ukrainian forces everywhere in the war-torn country.

But a Russian missile strike is only as effective as its supporting intel. In this case, the intel was bad. So the expensive Russian missile likely blew up old, grounded An-2s instead of active Ukrainian aircraft.

Ukraine’s Yak-52—or Yak-52s—survived to fight another day, continuing to evade Russian missiles and hunt drones.

The bad news for Russian missile strike planners is good news for Ukrainian airmen and the troops and civilians they protect from Russian missiles and drones.

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