Polygraph, “prohibition”, 200 targets in 200 days – all this is about this elite battalion.

The Kairos Battalion of the 414th Magyar Birds Brigade is a high-priority target for the Russians. They have been bombing Moscow for two weeks, humiliating the Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin before his people and on the world stage. The unit is highly secretive and has never spoken to the press before.

His fighters are required to abstain from alcohol, hide their place of work from friends and family, and regularly undergo polygraph tests to confirm that they have not disclosed any classified information, The Times writes .

“We’re trying to make the war too expensive for them to continue, and force them to make peace,” says Battalion Commander Ray, then adds a veiled threat to Putin: “It doesn’t matter to a drone whether it’s an oil refinery, a port, or the Kremlin.”

Kairos Battalion

“Kairos,” named after the Greek god of the auspicious moment, has already achieved impressive success. On June 19, Moscow residents woke up to find the city shrouded in thick black smoke from a burning oil refinery.

Twelve days ago, delegates to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum watched as smoke from a burning oil terminal filled Russia’s second capital.

“We’re making history here,” says Panama, the company commander overseeing the UAV launch. “A few years ago, Putin was telling everyone he could conquer us in three days. Now he sees Russia burning. We didn’t start this, but we’re paying them back. Justice has come.”

The pace of attacks is relentless: the unit launches long-range strike drones into Russia almost daily or launches medium-range strikes into occupied territories. They coordinate with related units, sometimes joined by new Ukrainian cruise missiles.

Ukraine’s attacks show no signs of stopping

Over the past week, Ukrainian strikes have hit eight oil and gas facilities, factories producing precision instruments for missiles and rocket fuel, and military logistics warehouses – all in 12 Russian regions.

In the most distant case, drones have traveled at least 1,500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. “The technologies we have today mean that war is no longer something that can be fought on foreign territory, held at arm’s length. It will come back to your own home,” Panama emphasizes. “And when you smell war burning on your doorstep, you perceive it very differently than when you just watch a picture on TV.”

He gives the order, and one by one, eight drones take off, each fired into the twilight by a rocket booster that flashes brightly and falls to the ground as the propeller engines kick in. Each leaves a trail of smoke and the lingering smell of sulfur and charcoal.

In the run-up to the strikes on Moscow, Kairos had been systematically destroying Russian anti-aircraft systems on the outskirts of the city for two months. “We’ve been operating as a battalion for about 200 days and have hit about 200 targets during that time,” Ray explained. The strikes presented Putin and his commanders with a dilemma, he added.

Now, if they start replacing them, if they concentrate a lot of air defense around Moscow, it will open up a lot of other vulnerabilities in different regions – for example, in Crimea, he added.

How was this unit created?

Ray and Panama are among those who survived, entering the fray on the first day of the war, rushing to defend the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “We had no military experience, and we were waiting for the Wagner mercenaries. It was the scariest time of my life,” Ray says.

They later joined an elite special forces unit that performed assault and clearance missions, and then Ray was sent to a US Army base in Wiesbaden, Germany, where he served as a liaison officer with Ukraine’s allies.

There, he says, he learned a lot about NATO’s own “deep strike” drone programs. Upon his return, he approached Robert Brody, commander of the Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces (UAF), with the idea of ​​creating his own battalion.

Seven months later, his NATO connections are still proving useful, he said. “We usually get pretty good intelligence from our British friends, and we really appreciate that,” he added.

Kairos and the 414th Brigade now play a key role in the SBS’s long-range strikes, which they say have dramatically increased the scale of operations – increasing the number of long-range attacks fourfold and medium-range drone strikes 28-fold compared to last year.

The unit is made up of foreigners, some former special forces, a few Britons, Americans, Europeans and one Japanese. Ray hopes their success will help attract more volunteers – especially among soldiers who realize that the traditional armies they serve in are outdated.

(c)UNIAN 2026