Meet Code 9.2: a Ukrainian unit once tasked with dropping mines deep behind enemy lines

In May 2024, CNN introduced its audience to a secret Ukrainian unit that had been tasked with a very special but very dangerous mission: dropping mines behind enemy lines inside Russia.

Soldiers from Ukraine’s 92nd Assault Brigade’s Code 9.2 drone unit have earned praise since the Russians invaded Ukraine back in February 2022 for their daring strikes on enemy combatants and military equipment. 

A Ukrainian Defense Ministry video released about the drone unit in November 2023 on social media noted Unit Code 9.2 had “mastered the art of drone warfare to perfection.”

“In daytime, they work with Mavics, searching and eliminating enemy infantry,” the video explained, adding that at night the unit used Vampire quadcopters to target equipment.  

In September 2023, the Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Federov shared one video on Telegram of Code 9.2's stunning success against Russia. 

Code 9.2’s Ivan Sirko used a drone to strike and destroy two pieces of equipment at a Russian ammunition storage point during a night strike on the front in Donetsk Oblast. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @zedigital

Among the destroyed equipment was a Rapier anti-aircraft missile system and a unit of self-propelled artillery as well as the ammunition storage point itself, Federov explained. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @zedigital

While Code 9.2's previous accomplishments had been quite significant, the secretive group of drone operators was tasked in early 2024 with a much different, and more dangerous, type of mission. 

CNN was embedded with the 92nd Brigade’s Code 9.2 unit as it embarked on what the U.S. news outlet called a “rare and potent mission” to drop mines inside of Russia. 

Soldiers of the Code 9.2 drone unit set up their equipment at dusk as a way of protecting themselves from enemy drones and began their mission at night according to CNN. 

Using two quadcopter Vampire drones, the unmanned vehicle’s operators were tasked with using the drones to carry explosives across Ukraine’s border into Russian territory.  

The exact location of the operation was not disclosed but CNN noted that the soldiers it was reporting on were located somewhere near the border in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. 

From a bunker, the operators of the Vampire drones used controllers to fly the machines over the border and ferry their explosives into Russia despite heavy Russian jamming. 

Within ten minutes of beginning the operation, the drone operators had dropped off their mines on a road, which the unit told CNN were hit by an armored car the following day. 

Business Insider noted in its reporting on the secretive mission that “Ukraine has used drones to devastating effect, launching ongoing attacks on Russia's Black Sea Fleet.”

Not only has the Russian Navy been affected by increased drone attacks but so too has Russia’s oil industry. Drones were also responsible for two-thirds of Russian tank losses in May 2024. 

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