Spot Report by OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM): SMM loses unmanned aerial vehicle over Korsun

This report is for media and the general public.

At 18:16 (EET) on 2 June the SMM lost all communication with an SMM long-range unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) while it was flying at an altitude of 9,000ft in the area between “DPR”-controlled Korsun (31km north-east of Donetsk) and “DPR”-controlled Shevchenko (28km north-east of Donetsk) [1].

While flying 2km south of Korsun village, 12.5km south-east of the contact line, the UAV experienced dual jamming of its Global Positioning System, causing loss of all communications and the video link. Seconds later, it experienced simultaneous system failures. At approximately 18:44 the Ukrainian Armed Forces liaison officer reported that they had lost the UAV from their radar, approximately 2km south of Korsun at the same time when the SMM had also lost communication with the UAV. The SMM informed the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC), who, as per established procedure, had been informed in advance of the UAV flight plan.

Simultaneous loss of all communication with the UAV strongly suggests that it was caused by an impact to the tail section of the UAV, where the anti-jamming system and the antennas are located, which in turn triggered the other system failures. According to the SMM’s preliminary assessment, these events likely caused the UAV to crash. At the time of reporting, the SMM, together with the JCCC, is going to the presumed crash site to recover possible UAV debris and the anti-jamming device in the tail section, and collect any other relevant information.

On 1 June 2016 the SMM UAV had spotted a surface-to-air missile launcher (9K33 Osa, 210mm) and an anti-aircraft gun (ZU-23) in Korsun, within the security zone, (see SMM Daily Report 2 June 2016).

On 27 May an SMM unmanned aerial vehicle was downed near “DPR”-controlled Horlivka (see SMM Spot Report 27 May 2016).

[1] More detail can be found in the annex.