This footage shows a Ukrainian anti-aircraft system firing a missile into the dead of night before an explosion is seen seconds later as a Russian drone is hit.

Newsflash obtained the video from the Ukrainian Ground Forces (ZSU) earlier today (Thursday, 5th May).

The ZSU said: “Ukrainian defenders in Zaporizhzhia destroyed the Orlan-10 reconnaissance drone with the help of the Osa anti-aircraft missile system.”

Zaporizhzhia Oblast lies in south-eastern Ukraine. The southern part of the province has been occupied by Russian forces, but its capital city, Zaporizhzhia, remains under Ukrainian control.

The Orlan-10 is a reconnaissance, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by the Special Technology Centre in Saint Petersburg for the Russian Armed Forces.

Several of the UAVs have been shot down in combat during the ongoing invasion.

The 9K33 Osa is a highly mobile, low-altitude, short-range tactical surface-to-air missile system developed in the Soviet Union in the 1960s.

It first came into service in 1971 and counts both Russia and Ukraine among its current operators.

Russian troops invaded Ukraine on 24th February in what the Kremlin is now calling a “special military operation” to “protect Donbass”. The invasion is now in its 71st day.

The video was posted as Russian troops continue their attempts to finally gain control of the besieged city of Mariupol after the evacuation of some 300 civilians in a joint UN-Red Cross operation.

A Ukrainian commander fighting inside the combat zone from the Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant described the fighting as “difficult” and “bloody”.

The bitter fighting which is now moved to a focus on the east of the country comes as Belarus which is Ukraine’s neighbour began large-scale military drills and apparent exercises to test their combat readiness.

The defence ministry in the UK had earlier warned that Russia was possibly hoping to provoke Ukraine into putting much-needed military resources on the Belarusian border over concerns that there might be fighting opening up on a new front.

At the moment the fighting in the East saw Russia claiming to have destroyed six railway stations which they said were being used to bring Western military aid including weapons to the region.

The severe fighting in the country has prompted the European Union to unveil plans for the tougher sanctions so far which include among other things an oil embargo to be slowly phased in.