The newspaper’s reporters have visited the street where the explosion took place, and with the help of an explosives expert, analyzed the impact site. According to the newspaper, a crater and shrapnel damage to surrounding buildings indicate that the robot struck from the northwest and was therefore launched from Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Re-debated surveillance footage
Surveillance footage has also been analysed, where the incoming robot appears to be reflected on two parked cars. The robot appears to strike the market from the northwest – the same direction several witnesses are looking towards before the explosion.
SVT has previously been able to state that the film is incomplete evidence because the mirror image could also have been caused if the robot struck directly from above or from a steep angle from the southeast. According to Hans Liwång, docent in military technology at the Norwegian Defense Academy, the direction of impact is also no proof of who is responsible. Robots can change course before hitting a target.
New findings strengthen theory of Ukrainian attack
But the NYT also highlights other information that points to the fact that it may have been a Ukrainian robot. On the same day as the attack, the newspaper’s reporters were on the ground in Druzhivka, about 16 kilometers northwest of Kostiantynivka. A few minutes before the explosion, the newspaper’s reporters heard the sound of two robots being fired – first at 2 p.m. and then a few minutes later. Local testimonies and Telegram chats, which the newspaper has seen, also corroborate the information. The robot struck Kostiantynivka four minutes later.
According to a witness, a robot was fired from an anti-aircraft post on the outskirts of the village. At the site, the NYT found fresh traces of military activity and burn marks in the ground that may have been caused by ground-based air defense systems.
Fragments from the impact site
Fragments from the robot that crashed into surrounding buildings indicate that the robot used was a type 9M38 anti-aircraft robot. It has a range of 27 kilometers and is fired from the ground-based Buk air defense system, which both Russia and Ukraine have access to.