Channel 5 war correspondent Olha Kalynovska suffered a concussion after being targeted by a Russian optical fiber FPV drone on 3 June. The car in which she was traveling along with servicemen of the airborne assault brigade No. 148, including the press officer, was attacked. The servicemen were also injured, the journalist reported in a comment to the Institute of Mass Information.
The incident occurred at about 6:30 a.m., 17 kilometers away from the battlefield, as the group was driving to Pokrovske, Dnipropetrovsk oblast.
Kalynovska says that the drone hit the protective net in front of the car’s windshield and exploded. She adds that everyone in the car was concussed by the shock wave.
“I am fine, they examined me at a stabilization point, IV dripped me, diagnosed me with a mild acubarotrauma. I had a headache and nausea, but it has passed,” the journalist says.
She adds that the drone probably had a shaped charge, so there were no shrapnel injuries. Instead, everyone got scratches and bruises while getting out of the car.
“Except as we stumbled out of the car, we all dropped onto the concrete, and we scraped up our arms, legs, knees and elbows. But these are minor things,” she said.
The journalist says that she was traveling in a lightly armoured military Hummer equipped with additional nets. This was what saved them, she says.
Kalynovska adds that the Russians already have air control over that section of the road and are trying to disrupt the supply chains to Pokrovske. She notes that other cars were attacked after they had passed.
The journalist adds that the electronic warfare systems the car was equipped with did not work on the fiber optic drone, which is immune to such influences. They also had a Chuyka (drone detector) that also did not notice the drone. She says that they noticed the drone at the last moment, when it was facing the car a few meters away.
“We did not see a single drone on the Chuyka. We saw it when we drove around the bend and stumbled right on it, we saw it 5 meters away from us. I think it was a sleeper drone,” said Olha.
Olha says that she is unsure whether the Russian troops were aware that there were journalists in the car.
“Whether the Russians knew that there were journalists in the car, I do not know. Purely theoretically, if they had intercepted any communications, they would have known, because we had sent notice that we were approaching Pokrovske,” the journalist says.
In 2025, a crew including Channel 5 correspondent Olha Kalynovska hit a magnetic mine, which detonated under their car, during a trip near Pokrovsk (Donetsk oblast). All four crew members suffered concussions and one was injured in the leg (in addition to a large bruise, his upper leg bones were broken). The car was severely damaged.
