MYKOLAIV, UKRAINE

RUMOURS THAT RUSSIA has developed autonomous assassin drones have been circulating in Ukraine since last year. The forced withdrawal of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock from the frontline city of Mykolaiv may be an indication that the stories of drones that track individual targets are true.

Normally, the presence of a Russian drone can presage an artillery or rocket strike. It would be normal to get into cover when one is spotted. But the German Foreign Minister, who was on a morale-boosting visit, is said to have evacuated not just the city of Mykolaiv, but the whole oblast, the administrative region.

“It’s been a long time since a German minister evacuated this region,” says Eugen Waffenfunk, a freelance reporter covering the Ukraine War for a Mongolian news agency. “This causes the belief that the fear went beyond a mere strike; the fear may have been that the drone had her name and photograph in its guidance system. It was coming for her. Ukrainian intelligence officers are sure the Russians have drones they program to kill individuals. These drones are autonomous and hunt their targets relentlessly. They may have the capacity to remain airborne for days, possible recharging from so-called battery drones which fly above the battlefield, like mother ships. It’s all rather chilling. But the future is the future, I suppose.”

Officials in Kyiv refused to comment and Berlin insisted that the Foreign Minister was taking precautions so as to avoid her presence bringing destruction to others. “Our policy in the east remains the same,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson insisted. “Stem the Russian advance. Hold back the Asiatic hordes. Wait a minute, scratch that … bitte.”