Ukrainian engineers have designed a DIY rocket families can build in their own back gardens from everyday materials, in order to rain terror on the Russian invaders.
Dubbed the ‘people’s missile’, the Trembita uses the same technology as the German V1s flying bombs, or Doodlebugs, used in the Second World War.
The anti-Russian Vidsich protest group has designed the ‘garage-made’ rocket that while not as accurate as laser-guided missiles, should be able to travel around 87 miles from launch.
A barrage of 20 of the missiles could ‘overcome enemy air defences and hit targets at a sufficient depth’, the group has claimed.
They can carry a maximum of 20kg of explosives and produce a thermal signal that Russian air defences would attempt to hit, wasting expensive ammunition.
The anti-Russian Vidsich protest group has designed the ‘garage-made’ rocket that while not as accurate as laser-guided missiles, should be able to travel around 87 miles from launch
Social media videos showing the new Trembita weapons being made appear to show its creators firing up a pulsating jet engine
Dubbed the ‘people’s missile’, the Ukrainian designed DIY rocket, called Trembita, uses the same technology as the German V1s used in the Second World War. Pictured: An unexploded German V1 missile or buzz bomb, fired at Britain following D-day
The genius of the improvised weapon also lies in its ability to deceive Russian forces, its developers say.
By releasing a thermal signal picked up by enemy air-defence systems, the Russians would then fire expensive munitions to down the cheap rockets.
‘Our simple missile is incomparably cheaper than the shots of enemy anti-aircraft missile systems,’ Vidsich told The Telegraph.
The new weapons have been likened to V1 rockets, used by the Nazis on London towards the end of the Second World War.
Some 5,000 V1s, the world’s first cruise missile, were launched by the Germans to bomb London, causing massive loss of life.
Social media videos showing what appear to be prototypes of the new Trembita weapons seem to show its creators firing up a pulsating jet engine.
By using gasoline as fuel, the rockets could be sent some 87 miles from their launch point.
This means the missiles would have around double the range of the powerful M142 Himars, US-made rockets which have proved one of Kyiv’s most crucial armaments in the war so far.
It comes after Ukrainian saboteurs yesterday derailed a Russian freight train and destroyed power cables with explosive devices in a double blow for Vladimir Putin.
The train, carrying oil and construction materials, burst into flames following a detonation on the tracks in the Bryansk region, 37 miles from the Ukrainian border.
Video taken shortly after the attack showed several destroyed carriages ablaze and laying on their side, with dark grey smoke billowing into the air.
Local governor Alexander Bogomaz said the explosive device went off ‘on the 136th kilometre’ of the railroad between Bryansk and the town of Unecha – a route used for transporting Moscow’s military supplies.
The sabotage attacks came as Kyiv prepares for a widely expected counter-offensive this spring, with Ukraine building up its mechanised brigades with armour supplied by its Western allies.
A Russian freight train derailed and burst into flames today after an explosive device detonated on the rail tracks just 37 miles from the Ukrainian border
The train, which was carrying Russian tanks, was targeted in the Bryansk region of Russia , the local governor Alexander Bogomaz said, adding there were no casualties
Video shows several destroyed oil tanker carriages ablaze and laying on their side following the blast, with dark grey smoke billowing into the air
Separately, the governor of Russia’s Leningrad region near St. Petersburg said a power line had been blown up overnight and an explosive device found near a second line
Russian Railways, the country’s rail operator, said the attack on the freight train occurred at 10.17am Moscow time (07.17 GMT).
It said the locomotive and seven freight wagons were derailed and the locomotive caught fire.
Meanwhile, the White House said on Monday that Russia has suffered 100,000 casualties, with more than 20,000 killed in action, during just the past five months amid the grinding conflict in Ukraine.
It reflects how Moscow’s hopes of rapid victory gave way to a brutal war of attrition that carries a huge cost.
Coupled with previous estimates by other U.S. officials it could put the total number of Russian casualties at 200,000 since Moscow invaded last year.
John Kirby, White House security spokesman, said Russia’s attempt at an offensive in the eastern Donbas region, through the city of Bakhmut, had largely failed
Police are seen at the site of a residential area hit by a Russian military strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Pavlohrad, Dnipropetrovsk region
John Kirby, White House security spokesman, said Russia’s attempt at an offensive in the eastern Donbas region, through the city of Bakhmut, had largely failed.
‘For Russia this attempted effort, particularly in Bakhmut, has come at a terribly, terribly high cost,’ he told reporters.
‘Russia has exhausted its military stockpiles and its armed forces and since December alone … we estimate Russia has suffered more than 100,000 casualties, including over 20,000 Killed in action, nearly half of whom were Wagner soldiers, the majority of whom were Russian convicts that were thrown into combat… [without] sufficient combat training, combat leadership, or any sense of organisational command and control.’
He said the information was based on newly declassified intelligence but did not offer further details.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk