TASS news agency (Russia) said that on February 11, a batch of FPV glasses (first perspective) was donated to the Russian army, however, when the soldiers activated the glasses, they immediately exploded.
Igor Potapov, representative of JSC NPP, which manufactures protective equipment for the Russian military, confirmed that the glass lots were donated by an individual. When checking, the soldiers discovered that all the glasses contained flexible explosives. Although TASS did not mention any injuries or casualties, the level of danger of these devices is undeniable.
The above FPV glasses are the Skyzone Cobra X v4, which is often used to provide live images when controlling drones. This is a popular glasses model on the international market, priced at around 324 USD on the Amazon.
Skyzone currently supplies products to many countries, including Russia and Ukraine, but did not list JSC NPP as an official distributor.
According to Telegram channel Razved Dozor, each pair of glasses contained 10-15 grams of flexible explosives, and all boxes showed signs of previous intervention.
War expert Matthew Ford, lecturer in international relations at the University of Sussex (UK), compared the incident to the series of pagers and walkie-talkies explosions in Lebanon last September. However, he said that the case in Russia has an important difference: while the Lebanon case required months of planning and intervention in Hezbollah's supply chain, in Russia, this batch of glasses was transferred through a personal sponsor.
Mr. Ford emphasized that attacking unofficial supply chains like this would make it more difficult for the Russian military, forcing them to strengthen inspection and supervision measures for even unofficial support sources. This is especially important as Russian and Ukrainian units both rely on community capital mobilization to equip basic equipment in the context of the prolonged conflict.
Notably, JSC NPP - the company involved in the incident - is on the list of sanctions issued by the UK and the European Union for its role in developing and supplying electronic warfare equipment to Russian forces in Ukraine. The incident continues to raise concerns about logistical security and the safety of personal aid sources for the Russian military amid the tense conflict.
