(KYIV, UKRAINE) – The Gorynych programme, named after a multi-headed dragon from Slavic folklore, represents one of Ukraine’s most remarkable wartime achievements, transforming a readily available French ultralight aircraft into a long range, reusable strategic bomber capable of delivering powerful precision attacks deep inside Russian territory while effectively evading major air defenses. This affordable, innovative, and highly effective unmanned strike capability is significantly enhancing Kyiv’s ability to target critical Russian infrastructure.
The Gorynych drone, soaring through the skies akin to the mythical fire breathing beast, is a potent military asset credited with destroying Russian factories and other assets, leaving nothing but smoke and rubble in its wake. This development is another outstanding example of Ukrainian innovation, adding to the countless extraordinary weapons, defenses, and strategies developed by Kyiv’s commanders and engineers since the full scale invasion began, including AI powered automated air defense turrets and maritime drones capable of engaging enemy aircraft. For many, the Gorynych is considered the most impressive innovation to date.
An in depth report by the Ukrainian publication Babel, granted special access to the 14th Separate Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Regiment that operates the programme, confirmed that the Gorynych is based on the Skyranger, a French ultralight aircraft manufactured by Best Off Aviation in Toulouse, France. The original Skyranger, first launched in 1990, has seen numerous variants developed since, including the Skyranger Vfun, Vmax, and Swift, with hundreds in use globally. The plane measures approximately 5.5 metres (18 feet) in length, boasts a wingspan of just over 9.5 metres (31 feet), and stands 2 metres (six feet, seven inches) high.
The Skyranger has an empty weight of around 250 kilograms (550 pounds) and a maximum takeoff weight of a little over 560 kilograms (1,200 pounds), capable of carrying up to 50 litres (13 gallons) of fuel. Its Rotax 912UL flat four, 79.9 horsepower engine allows for peak cruise speeds of approximately 150 kilometers per hour (93 miles per hour) and an ascent rate of up to 4.6 metres per second (900 feet per minute). This sleek and simple ultralight aircraft, popular among beginner pilots and recreational aviation enthusiasts, was never intended for military use, let alone to inflict potentially billions of US dollars in damage to the Russian dictatorship’s infrastructure.
The project is the brainchild of a man known only by the codename Gorynych, a former multimillion dollar businessman and pilot from Western Ukraine who refused to reveal his full identity to Babel‘s reporters. Born in Western Ukraine and having lived in the Far East of the Soviet Union and the Kamchatka region during his childhood, he studied economics before achieving exceptional business success and enjoying a lavish lifestyle. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 abruptly halted his business operations, leading him to pursue a newfound passion for aviation.
Gorynych dedicated himself to learning to fly, first via YouTube videos, and then enrolling in aviation school to obtain his private pilot’s license. Aviation had become a popular hobby across Ukraine during the pandemic as commercial air travel ceased, allowing smaller aircraft and trainees to use the airspace. New airfields opened, offering opportunities for those who could afford an ultralight aircraft, including high profile businessmen like Gorynych. He quickly developed a strong connection with his instructor, Maksym, a lifelong aviation enthusiast who had been tracking aircraft movements and studying aviation since childhood.
Maksym joined the National Aviation University and achieved his pilot’s license soon after his first solo flight in 2017. His instructors were so impressed that he was offered the opportunity to teach, eventually becoming an instrument, multi engine, and night instructor, training hundreds of students including Gorynych. In 2022, Maksym was set to begin specialist training as a Boeing 757 pilot with a newly founded airline, Supernova Airlines, envisioning a thrilling career in commercial aviation. Gorynych also entered 2022 with optimism, having been invited to participate in the government’s “Great Construction” project to improve national infrastructure.
However, the Russian invasion in 2022 abruptly ended both men’s hopes and dreams. Soon after the invasion, Gorynych, despite having no prior military experience, volunteered to serve, determined to defend his homeland. Utilising his multiple close connections within the Ukrainian government, he secured an opportunity he could not refuse: joining Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces (SOF) to carry out special sabotage missions in occupied territories. He immediately contacted his former flight instructor, Maksym, who agreed to join him.
After training, the duo were deployed to the Donetsk region to work with Avenger unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). These light aircraft style UAVs possessed a tactical radius of around 40 kilometers (25 miles) and could drop bombs weighing up to 3.5 kilograms (eight pounds) before returning to base and landing safely via parachute. Gorynych’s aviation background allowed him to quickly recognise the potential of weapons like the Avenger to inflict massive damage and accurately predict the growing importance of drones in the war, pushing him to seek a strategic advantage in this evolving sector.
While the Avenger was a good start, Gorynych believed the concept could be significantly enhanced. He envisioned a next level bomber capable of travelling hundreds of miles into enemy territory to execute precise and destructive deep strike attacks, a vision he believed he had the skills and experience to realise. In early 2023, the two men were sent to serve in different SOF units; Maksym became an instructor for new recruits on the Avenger, while Gorynych transferred to a Spec Ops center near Bakhmut to begin building his transformative bomber.
Gorynych selected the French Skyranger as his platform due to its impressive technical specifications and its availability as a Do It Yourself (DIY) kit, costing approximately 50,000 Ukrainian Hryvnia (UAH), which is equivalent to about 1,250 US Dollars (USD) as of December 2025 (note: a typical price for a Skyranger kit is closer to $50,000 USD, suggesting this UAH figure or the current conversion rate may be an extreme wartime anomaly or an error in the source material, but the given conversion is used based on the prompt’s instruction). He then assembled a team of adept engineers to refine and retrofit the Skyranger. The default design required major modifications, including the implementation of an autopilot system for autonomous takeoff, aerial maneuvers, and landing, as well as increased fuel capacity for extended range, military grade navigation and communication systems, and, crucially, a bomb payload.
The team successfully converted the recreational aircraft into a deadly weapon. Gorynych gained access to the army arsenal and discovered a large stockpile of Soviet era OFAB 100 120 aviation bombs, which provided the perfect firepower for his planes. He was also provided with a training ground for practice sorties and design fine tuning. As the project neared completion in 2023, Gorynych concluded that “military political” reasons would likely prevent him from bringing his bomber into service with the Special Operations Forces. This necessitated a transfer to a unit with greater freedom and flexibility.
Fortunately, such a unit already existed, formed by two of Gorynych’s former Special Operations colleagues, codenamed Fidel and Kasper. Recognising the increasing importance of drone warfare, these officers reached out directly to Ukraine’s Commander in Chief at the time, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, successfully convincing him of the need for a new, specialised unit to employ drones both tactically and strategically for short and long range attacks. This unit became the 14th Regiment of the Unmanned Systems Forces.
Representatives from the 14th Regiment visited Gorynych’s training ground, where he, Maksym, and their team showcased their bomber. The drone successfully took to the air, completed a test mission, executed aerial maneuvers, and accurately struck the skeleton of a training tank with an aerial bomb. The regiment’s commanders were impressed, immediately understanding the serious potential of the new “Gorynych” drone as a potentially game changing addition to their arsenal. It was determined to require only minor improvements, such as communication enhancements for reliable target arrival and a stronger supporting structure for extended airborne time in difficult conditions.
These improvements were rapidly implemented, and soon after, the Ukrainian Armed Forces began deploying the Gorynych for real world combat missions against Russian assets. Specific details of these missions from 2023 onward remain highly classified and have not been publicly disclosed, making it impossible to accurately calculate the total damage inflicted on Russia by this particular bomber drone. However, Gorynych himself has confirmed that the drone has successfully struck factories, arsenals, and oil and gas infrastructure across Russia, estimating the total damage to be between $3 and $5 billion (USD).
Despite the project’s extreme secrecy, the wider world has caught a few glimpses of the Gorynych in action. In April 2024, images of an unmanned light aircraft that had crash landed in a field suddenly appeared across Russian Telegram channels. Russian military blogger Kirill Fedorov posted: “Photos have appeared that 100% confirm the theory that [Ukraine] began to use light aircraft to attack Russia. As you can see, this aircraft is equipped with optics and an aircraft high explosive bomb is attached to it. The space intended for pilots has been converted and contains electronics.” Analysts worldwide immediately recognised the plane as a Skyranger, observing its complete conversion from a simple recreational plane into a remotely operated bomber drone.
A small detail, easily overlooked amid the in depth analysis, was a sticker attached to the plane’s fuselage displaying the logo of Nikolaevsky Vanyok, a popular Ukrainian blogger. Gorynych confirmed that he attaches such stickers to many of the Gorynych bombers as a gesture of appreciation for the blogger’s work. A more substantial glimpse into the Gorynych’s capabilities occurred on October 6, 2025, during an attack on the Sverdlov Plant in Dzerzhinsk, located near Nizhny Novgorod, Russia’s sixth largest city. The plant is a critical manufacturing location for industrial explosives.
The Sverdlov Plant is the only facility in all of Russia to produce RDX (commonly used in plastic explosives like C-4) and HMX (a more powerful military explosive often used in nuclear weapons and rocket propellants). It also manufactures transmission charges for the mining industry, perforating charges for oil and gas production, aerial bombs, anti tank missile warheads, and anti aircraft missile system warheads, making it a major component of Russia’s military industrial complex and an entity sanctioned by Ukraine, the European Union, the United States, and other nations.
During the attack, a Gorynych drone reportedly travelled from Ukraine to the factory, dropping one of the aforementioned OFAB 100 120 bombs, which possesses a high explosive payload of around 42 kilograms (92 pounds). It also reportedly dropped two 120mm mortar shells, before concluding with a kamikaze maneuver, detonating a concealed thermobaric device and any remaining fuel in its tanks to prevent Russian analysis. Multiple subsequent Gorynych bombers followed this initial impact, leading to social media footage showing the factory on fire with flames and plumes of smoke rising into the night sky, and local residents reporting numerous explosions.
Gleb Nikitin, the Nizhny Novgorod regional governor, confirmed the attack, but Russian accounts of the damage vary and are likely downplayed, a common pattern when their most important assets are hit. In the early hours of October 6, Nikitin claimed air defenses intercepted approximately 20 drones, with debris causing fires in a nearby residential area and one person injured. However, a later strike on Dzerzhinsk that same week was described as a much larger wave: “Last night, 30 drones were destroyed by air defense forces in the industrial zone of Dzerzhinsk. According to preliminary information, there were no casualties. The debris caused damage to several buildings, farm buildings, and cars.”
Given the significant size of the fire documented at the plant, it is highly likely that the actual damage was more extensive than Russian officials were willing to acknowledge. This publicly reported case is only one example; undoubtedly, there have been many more classified Gorynych deep strike attacks on targets across Russia’s vast territories, resulting in fires, explosions, and widespread disruption. In many instances, the planes are capable of dropping their payloads and returning safely to base for reuse, as confirmed by the Babel report, making them dramatically more cost effective than single use weapons.
Unlike missiles or kamikaze drones, which are single use and require constant replacement resources, the Gorynych is entirely reusable. With each Skyranger kit costing around $50,000 USD (approximately 2 million UAH at a more typical exchange rate), plus the additional expenses for fuel and systems, a single bomber drone represents incredible value for money given its capacity for damage. Furthermore, Russia’s major air defense systems, including the Pantsir, the Buk, and the S 300, have proven largely incapable of intercepting these bombers.
The 14th Regiment engineers and pilots have found ways to help the Gorynych navigate through satellite signal suppression zones, successfully evading all major Russian air defensive systems. This allows the regiment to launch their drones with confidence, increasing the probability of mission success, inflicting costly damage on Russian assets, and ensuring the plane returns to base, ready to refuel, reload, and launch again. These deep strike attacks, often occurring under the cover of darkness and outside of international headlines, are a source of considerable concern for the Russian dictator’s regime.
Gorynych himself continues to attend the bomber launches, attaching the small stickers to the planes’ bodies and watching with pride as his team assembles, fuels, arms, and prepares each one for takeoff. This incredible idea, brought to fruition by his brilliant mind and passion for aviation, underscores the determination of Ukraine’s people. The country continues to be home to countless other creative, determined problem solvers who are constantly unlocking new opportunities and discovering innovative ways for the nation’s forces to defend their territory and strike back at the enemy.
