THIS is the horrific moment a desperate Russian soldier was blown up after he tried to use a jerry can full of fuel to protect himself from an incoming kamikaze drone.
The lethal combination of the Ukrainian drone and highly flammable fuel caused a terrifying fireball - leaving the Russian fighter obliterated within the roaring flames.
Footage of the calamitous escape plan shows the Russian fighter on his own with just the can in his hands as the deathly drone zones in on him to launch an attack.
He holds up the jerry can as the drone hurtles towards him and collides with devastating results.
Video of the ordeal has been cut at the moment of the huge blast to a further away angle showing the full extent of the gas explosion.
A black shadowy figure of the soldier can be made out seconds before the drone hits as a fireball dramatically erupts.
The mammoth explosion - made several times worse due to the highly flammable liquid in the canister - reached unthinkable heights in the gloomy Ukrainian skyline.
The thick mushroom cloud of flames quickly transformed into plumes of black smoke as a smaller fire continued to rumble where the soldier was standing.
Further footage, seemingly taken from moments prior to the fatal blast, shows the kamikaze drone attempting to strike more than once.
The Russian troop manages at first to bat away the aerial killer as he launches one of his two canisters directly at the drone making it tumble through the air momentarily.
But on the second assault, the drone moves too fast for the scared fighter and his flailing attempt to use his final line of defence proves to be his downfall.
The kamikaze drone swoops down, smashing into the soldier in his full army uniform as the jerry can fuels the burst.
Adding gasoline to a fire causes a very volatile reaction as the liquid combusts with the flames causing a much hotter result.
It also causes the blast to be amplified and leads to a larger initial explosion which is often unmanageable.
Earlier today, more Ukrainian kamikaze drones caused havoc for Putin's men as they blasted a Russian freight train sparking a massive explosion.
The blast proved pivotal in the Ukrainian ploy to block a key missile supply line.
Dramatic footage captured the moment a huge fire on the railway line at Kotluban station near Volgograd erupted after dozens of wagons were derailed.
A witness in a train passing on an undamaged line said he saw an exploded oil wagon and badly burned timber adding: "Everything is mangled.
“Firefighters are here - one carriage is all torn up, lying across the tracks."
Russia stepped up attacks on Kharkiv in March targeting energy infrastructure and settlements with constant airstrikes in what analysts predicted were preparations for a new offensive.
The city of Kharkiv, located on the eastern front only 30 miles from the Russian border, was the prime target of Russia's aerial bombardment.
Moscow's forces pounded over 30 villages and towns in the region after pressing on with a brutal new ground offensive.
Its mayor had warned the West that it risked being turned into a "second Aleppo" - the Syrian city which heavy Russian bombing helped to decimate a decade ago.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Ukrainian troops had been carrying out counterattacks in the border villages.
"Disrupting Russian offensive plans is now our number one task," he said.
Ukraine's armed forces said Moscow had achieved some “tactical successes” around the north-eastern city near the Russian border over the weekend.
UK defence secretary Grant Shapps said the world is taking its "eye off the ball" after the recent Russian attacks.
Despite the success, Russia suffered record losses with 1,740 reportedly killed in a single day as its troops are thrown into the Kharkiv meatgrinder assaults.
But thousands of Ukrainian people have also been made to flee their homes out of fear of attacks.
As children have been seen going to school in underground, missile proof bunkers in the heart of war-torn Ukraine.
As last week, a succession of powerful drone explosions were heard overnight in the Dzerzhinsky district in Kaluga Oblast as flames and smoke filled the air.
Kamikaze drones blasted a Russian oil refinery as three tanks containing diesel fuel, and one tank containing fuel oil, were said to have been set alight.
Another oil depot blitz saw near the £3billion bridge linking Crimea to Russia.
Footage showed the blazing oil terminal at Yurovka in southern Krasnodar region, where Vladimir Putin has two sprawling palaces.
Some 62 firefighters rushed to the LUKOIL-Yugnaftoprodukt oil terminal to try and extinguish the roaring blaze.
Ukraine's repeated attacks on oil refineries have become a major headache for Putin, with Russian prices rising and supplies disrupted.
Moscow is meanwhile pummelling Ukraine's power plants in an attempt to hamper the production of weapons and public morale.
