Dnipro car blast and Zapad drone-vehicle demonstration, 15–16 September 2021
A look back at two reports from the days around 16 September 2021: a fatal car explosion in Dnipro and Russia's display of unmanned ground vehicles at the Zapad exercises.
What did the reports reaching Kyiv and the wider region look like on 16 September 2021? Two stories stood out from the preceding day, 15 September.
In the central part of Dnipro, a car exploded. The blast killed Oleksii Kavlak, a veteran of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO), and Daria Hrechishcheva, a spokeswoman for the State Emergency Service. Law enforcement officers described the explosion as a terrorist act.
The same day, Russia demonstrated unmanned ground vehicles in combat formations during the weeklong Zapad joint military exercises with Belarus. Two vehicles were shown. The Uran-9 is a tracked vehicle equipped with a 30 mm autocannon, a machine gun, anti-tank missiles and a flamethrower. The Nerekhta carries a mounted machine gun and a grenade launcher, and also has cargo capacity.
The two reports were unrelated, but both were part of the news picture as 16 September 2021 began.
