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A RUSSIAN spy drone has been blasted out of the sky by a British-made missile over a city on the frontline of war-torn Ukraine.
Incredible footage showed Vladimir Putin’s ZALA drone, believed to be for reconnaissance, erupt in a fireball and plummet to the ground.
It comes as yet another blow to the Russian president, who lost more than £688million worth of his war planes in just 10 days.
Ukraine blitzed ten of Moscow’s fighter jets – including a £237million spy plane – out of the sky.
The latest weaponry to humiliate Putin is the British Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM) defence system, which boasts a 90 per cent strike rate.
It is highly agile, designed for close-range combat with fighter jets, and adapted in Ukraine to a ground-based launcher.
The system completely destroyed the Russian drone in a strike over Kherson region in Ukraine.
Ukrainian media outlet The New Voice of Ukraine reported: “The guidance system helps to pick up the target‘s heat signature and hit it from different angles.
“The missile can detect, track, and hit targets that are not located directly in front of it.”
European missile manufacturer MBDA and the British Ministry of Defence developed the new system in a short period of time and trained Ukrainian crews.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps announced in December that Britain would send some 200 ASRAAM missiles to Ukraine to help protect the war-torn country from Russian drones and bombing.
He said at the time: “Putin’s latest wave of murderous air strikes are desperate and futile attempt to regain momentum after the catastrophic loss of hundreds of thousands of conscripts.
“We continue to stand by Ukraine’s defence, which is why today we are sending hundreds of air defence missiles to restock British gifted air defence systems capable of striking down Russian drones and missiles with incredible accuracy.”
The announcement came after Russia unleashed a sickening barrage of missiles on Ukraine, killing 28 people.
A total of 158 missiles hit homes, a maternity hospital, and a shopping mall in what was believed to be the biggest aerial attack on Ukraine since the beginning of the bloody war.
The assault, reportedly launched in revenge for Ukraine’s Boxing Day missile strike in Crimea, left 130 civilians wounded.
