Yolka

Yolka (“Fir tree”) is a Russian kinetic drone interceptor attributed to Kalashnikov Concern, first seen publicly at Moscow’s 2025 Victory Day parade and increasingly visible in combat footage circulated by Russian channels through mid-2026. The Russian Ministry of Defence has promoted it as a lightweight, AI-guided counter-UAS platform now fielded along multiple sectors of the front against Ukrainian strike and reconnaissance drones.

Per Russian MoD communications and milblogger accounts, Yolka weighs around 1.3 kg and is said to accelerate to roughly 230 km/h, with Russian social-media reporting citing an operational range of about 3 km. The engagement model is unusual: the aircraft carries no warhead and kills by kinetic impact, flying into its target at speed. Russian channels claim onboard artificial intelligence analyses the target’s structure in flight and steers the strike towards a weak point; independent corroboration of that autonomy claim is thin. The Russian technical channel UAVDEV, surveying field use in September 2026, flagged a related constraint: Yolka cannot accommodate a standard munition — a VOG-25 grenade at 275 g is too heavy — and operators who want an explosive effect are reportedly packing 30–50 g of plastic explosive into the airframe. No public teardown has disclosed the flight controller, onboard computer or vision stack.

Operationally, Russian channels report Yolka in use with the 82nd radio relay unit on the Kherson axis, where it is paired with air-surveillance assets, and with the 40th Naval Infantry Brigade in the Donetsk direction, where RT quoted operators engaging heavier Ukrainian systems including the Hornet strike drone. A clip circulated by the Russian channel SIL0VIKI claims a kinetic interception over Belgorod region. Russian commanders quoted by RT say Ukrainian operators have adapted by flying heavy drones low along tree lines and power corridors to complicate detection; losses attributed to Yolka are tracked by the Russian OSINT aggregator lostarmour.info.

The same UAVDEV review was unusually candid about Yolka’s limits — significant weather restrictions, no night-capable variant, the warhead gap noted above, “critically insufficient” numbers in the force, and what the author called a dramatic spread between production cost and the Ministry’s procurement price. Western supplier Auterion, which provides Ukraine with the SETH-X and Anubis loitering munitions, has been reported testing a manual-launch interceptor that Russian channels describe as resembling Yolka — a sign that the kinetic-interception format is now cross-pollinating between the two sides.