Bizarre footage shows how a gusty soldier “head-butted” a suicide drone.
The aerial clip shows the helmeted soldier initially scarpering as the UAV appears above him.
But then he stops in his tracks and turns to face the drone.
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He appears sharply focused as the grenade-fitted UAV flies straight towards him.
As it closes in on him, he appears to throw his head forward — hitting the drone square on.
A bright flash is seen and a cloud of smoke fills the air.
As it clears, a soldier is seen calmly walking away into the treeline.
The clip was filmed in a part of Ukraine where the Russian military is carrying out its so-called “special military operation”.
Media reports say the Russian soldier seen walking away and the one who head-butted the Ukrainian drone are the same person.
But eagle-eyed social media users have cast doubt on this claim, as reported by Need To Know.
Paddy wrote: “It’s not the same guy, watch closer, you can see this guy’s body drop up and to the left into the bushes after he’s blown up.
“And he’s ducking, not headbutting.”
Another replied: “After rewatching it a few times, I do think that’s a second person running away.
“You can spot the insane headbutter’s body on the ground in the fetal position left in the video.”
A third person commented: “The guy was killed and blown off to the left on screen. Another soldier is running away.”
A fourth added: “He comes out of the exact same hole that guy who headbutted the drone came out of at the beginning of the video.”
And Valentin remarked: “You cannot just headbutt a drone with explosives and walk away. He is 100 per cent dead.”
Russian “military expert” Viktor Litovkin believes the head-butting soldier may have survived.
He told Russian media: “Everyone thinks that grenade shrapnel flies in all directions, but that’s not the case.
“In reality, the fragments spread in a specific direction, usually in an arc.
“This soldier was lucky; he wasn’t in that area. Otherwise, the shrapnel would have easily pierced his helmet.
“He might be concussed, but he’s alive. In war, and in the military in general, such miracles do happen.
“There have been many cases like this: during training, a recruit drops a grenade with the pin pulled, and an officer covers it with his body.
“But not all of these heroic officers died – some survived because most of the shrapnel was absorbed by the ground.”
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