Ukrainian Influencer Infiltrates Russian Zoom Meeting Covering Drones, Insults Attendees

A popular Ukrainian prankster hacked a video conference for Russian officials discussing chronic problems in national drone production and ended the meeting by demanding that attendees explain why they were so unprofessional and seemingly intent on stealing government money, according to a recording of the Zoom meeting made public on Sunday. The breach by Evhen Volnov (handle: “Major Chernobaev”) targeted a virtual meeting attended by representatives of the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Russian state air industry agency Rosaviatsia.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Zoom footage published by Volnov showed 14 Russian officials signed in, including, among others, Rosaviatsia Deputy Head Andrey Potemkin, Evgenia Gvozditsina of the Aviation Register of Russia, and Evgeny Sivaev, deputy director of the drone division at the company Radar MMS. The Zoom description said the meeting would discuss “the process of certifying developed models of unmanned aviation by organizations and manufacturers.” Potempkin as chair of the proceedings said that Russian drone manufacturers were underperforming in developing new models of aircraft for his agency’s certification. “We can say that we have room to improve,” Potempkin said, comparing relatively quick Chinese certification of new drones with relatively slow Russian state certification of similar aircraft. Other Topics of Interest ‘They Will Hang Me’: Putin Fears Defeat in Ukraine, Plans to Send 400,000 More Russians to War One source said Putin believes ending the war without capturing at least all of Donbas could threaten his survival. Using indirect, bureaucratic language, typical for mid-level Russian officials speaking about an unpleasant fact, he said: “Therefore we must organize our work more responsibly than our colleagues from the Chinese People’s Republic.” The officials attending the video conference seemed passive. While none interrupted Potempkin’s presentation, most had their video feeds turned off. Drones have become a war-critical weapon system for Russia, accounting for at least half of all Ukrainian casualties and military equipment losses inflicted by Russian forces. Despite having an economy more than ten times larger than Ukraine’s, Russia likely produces 20-50% fewer military drones by volume. In terms of technology, Ukrainian drone manufacturers have maintained a strong, and at times decisive, advantage over their Russian counterparts since Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014. The Ukrainian prankster Volnov hijacked the meeting after Potempkin finished reading off statistics about the relative rates of Russian and Chinese certification of newly-developed drones and opened the floor for discussion. “Yes, colleagues, there is this question, how is it that Ukrainian engineers assemble effective, combat-capable unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) in the space of three weeks, in primitive conditions, yet Russian aviation, with everyone here sitting at this meeting, billions of rubles spent, and all we have is a little packet of certification documents to show their bosses?”The Russian officials at the meeting did not immediately respond to Volnov’s comments, which under Russia’s wartime laws are not only punishable by more than a decade in prison for the person making them, but can also be incriminating for anyone who intentionally listens to or repeats them. “How is that on the one hand the enemy (Ukraine) is fighting a war, and meanwhile at the same time you are just siphoning off money from the state budget?” Volnov said.The video showed attendees sitting silently in response to the question. After a brief pause, Potempkin demanded that Volnov identify himself. “I am Truntek. But can you explain yourself? I mean, I’m sitting here, and all I hear is ‘bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla.’” At the 1:06 mark one attendee uses profanity and another accuses Volnov of being a “provocateur.” “In my passport it’s written that I’m from the SBU,” Volnov responded, falsely identifying himself as an operator for Ukraine’s national spy agency. “Thank you for the information. Everything has been recorded. All you participants are recorded. Thank you for the incriminating evidence. And thank you for the interesting and optimistic information.” Then the video organizer cuts off the conference feed. Volnov’s commentary accompanying the video said that the meeting had been called to address the fact that Russian drone manufacturers are unable to assemble or certify a single drone unless Beijing supplies the components. The embarrassing-for-Moscow breach of an official Zoom conference discussing poor drone-certification rates came in the wake of another intrusion publicized by Volkov on Aug. 6. In that incident, he gained access to a closed video conference organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense to discuss the production of anti-drone jamming systems. Representatives of major military contractors, including VoenTorg, VoenTelecom, and OboronLogistics, attended the Zoom meeting, which included at least 25 logins and more than 60 Russian officials. A cascade of PowerPoint presentations by multiple attendees appeared to show agencies working hard despite limited resources, while arguing that shortcomings in military production were beyond their control. In the video edited by Volnov, balalaika music played in the background and presenters’ remarks were sped up for comedic effect.Volnov disrupted what had until then been a dull, slide-heavy discussion. He pointed out that, despite the efforts of Russian manufacturers of anti-drone jamming systems, thousands of Ukrainian drone strikes continued to hit energy and other critical infrastructure targets across Russia. He then posed a direct question: “Is there any money in the budget for jamming systems at all?” At least three conference rooms full of attendees were shown picking up papers and walking off-camera, rather than staying and answering Volnov’s question. “You are all co-conspirators with the regime and you will be held responsible for its crimes. It doesn’t matter what your job is. You know what you are doing and you know that on your hands is the blood of innocent people. Children and women.” Volnov told officials leaving the conference. In April, per the independent Russian news agency Meduza, Ukrainian operators infiltrated a closed video conference held by Russian army recruiters at Kuban State Agrarian University to drum up volunteers. Volnov on Apr. 4 published a video of an unidentified man calling himself a Ukrainian agent telling potential recruits sitting in a classroom with Russian officers not to sign up.“I’m actually a serviceman – just not Russian, but Ukrainian. And I want to tell you: God forbid you come here, because I’ll have to kill you – every single one of you who signs that contract. All your faces have been noted.”Organizers said the break-in was a provocation and cut off the digital feed. Ukrainian news platforms reported about the conference in detail while Russian state media ignored it. https://meduza.io/en/news/2026/04/24/man-claiming-to-be-ukrainian-soldier-crashes-russian-university-s-student-recruitment-call(NOTE TO READER: In Ukrainian “трутень/truten” has the meaning “drone” carrying meanings similar to English, i.e. “male bee,” “lazy person,” and “remote-controlled aircraft.” Kyiv Post AI research found a possible link between “Truntek” and a west Ukrainian dialect term meaning “fool” or “stupid person,” but could not confirm it. The word doesn’t exist in Russian.)