Ukraine National Guard Uses Drones to Evacuate Oleshky Kittens in ‘Operation Tiger’

Ukrainian tactical drone operators delivering supplies to a starving city cut off by the Russian military evacuated cats and kittens to safety after calls for help from human, comment and statements published by the National Guard on Tuesday said. Pilots and ground crew from Ukraine’s 11th National Guard Brigade used heavy hexadrones to transport six domestic cats more than ten kilometers across a major river, from the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky on the left bank of the Dnipro River to a Guard forward operations base on the right bank, said Oleksandr Pivnenko, the National Guard Commander, in published comment.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The southern Ukrainian city of Oleshky, with a reported population of some 2,000 residents is located in no-man’s-land territory. Russian authorities cut the town off from supplies in Spring purportedly to prevent infiltration by Ukrainian forces. Since then, the humanitarian situation in the city has worsened with people living in the town unable to reach safety on the Russian side of the lines because of military checkpoints and minefields, and on the Ukrainian side because of a natural barrier, the Dnipro River, and 24/7 combat operations on its waters. Oleshky residents over the summer told Ukrainian forces that domestic animals in the city had been left to fend for themselves by owners that had left, and that starvation was probable because people still remaining in the city had little food for themselves, never mind abandoned cats. Other Topics of Interest Sweden Sends Patriot to Poland to Guard Ukraine Aid Hub Sweden’s first Patriot mission under NATO command will protect the Rzeszów logistics hub starting in December. Ukraine’s 11th National Guard Brigade is an Odesa-based unit normally assigned to combat operations in the southern sector and along the Dnipro River flood plain. Serhiy Ivanov, commander of 11th Brigade’s Special Operations Bolharychi section, in a Tuesday interview with Ukraine’s Novyny Live news channel, said that artificers in the unit manufactured lightweight drone-transportable cage suitable for air transport of around two medium-sized cats, or more kittens, and pilots dropped the cages at visible locations within the city. Following heat signatures in one of the cages being spotted by a drone performing a nighttime scout flight, a heavy bomber drone normally used for dropping munitions on foxholes or individual Russian soldiers was dispatched to the pickup site, recovered the cage and flew the cats to the other side of the Dnipro and Ukraine-controlled territory, reports said. Dynamic video recorded by night vision camera and published by 11th Brigade showed a drop of a pre-fab cat cage and a resident loading a cat and at least four kittens into the container and giving the hand signal “Lift!” to the drone pilot. Other images showed the cat family clustered together, probably for warmth, as they flew dangling over the Dnipro River at medium altitude. Other video showed Guard ground crew running to stop the cage swaying so that it and its passengers landed gently. The evacuees – according to reports, one adult cat and five kittens, as of Tuesday – all reached safety “unharmed but understandably frightened” in sorties flown on Oct. 5-6, Ivanov said. Video showed both cat and kittens seemingly in good condition and curious about their surroundings minutes after they landed. Brigade headquarters subsequently named the air evacuation “Operation Tiger.” Ivanov said that the Russian troops fired on the cats and even launched interceptor drones, but hit neither the cats nor the transport drones. Support to people living in Oleshky was not reduced for the cat evacuation, he said, because the drones used to transport the cats did so on a return trip, after flying supplies to city residents. “They [Russian forces in the sector] made attempts – shooting down with small arms, interceptors, but we prevented this,” Ivanov said in part. “But this is the fifth year of the war, we already have experience, and we work to stay ahead of the curve [and Russian air defense forces].” A brigade statement said that homes would be found for all the evacuated cats. Invading Russian troops overran Oleshky in late February 2022, but Kremlin efforts to establish control there were hindered by Ukrainian partisans and commandos crossing the Dnipro River, and since mid-2025 by Ukrainian drones and artillery that forced Russian troops to quit permanent presence in the city. By Spring 2026, Ukrainian drone swarms operating around Oleshky had become so dense that Russian forces quit attempts event to patrol into the city or maintain utilities, leaving the city’s residents to fend for themselves. In late September, in response to the worsening humanitarian situation in Oleshky, the Ukrainian military launched a drone operation called “Help Oleshky” using combat drones to fly food, clean water and medicine into the city. By early October, between 3.9 and 5.5 tons of emergency deliveries had been landed at more than 100 locations in Oleshky by drone. By far the most common heavy transport/bomber drone operated by Ukrainian forces is a hexacopter commonly called a “Vampire,” which is manufactured by the local company SkyFall. The Vampire and similar aircraft typically have a useful payload of 10-15 kg (22-35 pounds). Along with the 11th National Guard Brigade, the Kherson-based 34th National Guard Regiment, the 34th Marine Infantry Brigade, and the 79th Border Guard Detachment are deployed in the lower Dnipro River region and participating in the air logistics operation to supply civilians in Oleshky, the Ukrainian Militarnyi news platform reported on Monday. Stefan Korshak is the Kyiv Post Senior Defense Correspondent. He is from Houston Texas, is a Yalie and since the mid-1990s has worked as correspondent/photographer for newswire, newspapers, television and radio. He has reported from five wars but most enjoys doing articles on wildlife and nature. You can read his weekly blog on the Russo-Ukraine War on Facebook, Substack and Medium. His new book on the 2022 Siege of Mariupol is available on Amazon UK and Amazon US.