Russian drone guided by AI kills civilians in Ukraine

A Russian attack drone that navigated and selected its target without intervention from a human pilot killed three civilians in southeastern Ukraine, according to an investigation published by The New York Times on August 24, 2026. The strike occurred at a gas station in Zaporizhzhia on July 6. It killed Tetiana Bubynets, a 19-year-old accounting student at Zaporizhzhia National University, Oleksiy Svirin, 41, and Roman Karpiy, 48. The Times identified the weapon as a Russian Molniya fixed-wing attack drone equipped with an Nvidia Jetson Orin minicomputer. Ukrainian air-defense commanders, drone specialists and forensic investigators who examined the wreckage said the aircraft flew without radio control and used onboard artificial intelligence to navigate and select its target, likely propane tanks being stored at the gas station.