Resembling Israel’s pager op, Russian troops are targeted with booby-trapped drone headsets

Russian soldiers received a batch of booby-trapped headsets containing hidden explosives as part of a crowdfunded donation, Russian state media says.

Images of the disassembled headsets — with the appearance of standard “Cobra X V4” drone controller headsets made by Chinese manufacturer Skyzone — are posted on Telegram by pro-Kremlin blogger Razved Dozor.

Each headset is believed to have contained some 10-15 grams (about half an ounce) of plastic explosives, Dozor says.

Russians discovering small amounts of plastic explosives in a brand-new pair of FPV drone goggles. pic.twitter.com/8fCs24QaJ9

— FUNKER530 (@FunkerActual) February 11, 2025

“When the glasses were turned on, they detonated and exploded,” says a spokesperson for JSC NPP, a Russian company that provides equipment to the country’s military.

The report does not say whether anyone was wounded or killed by the headsets.

There is no immediate comment from Ukraine, which is at war with Russia since the latter’s 2022 invasion of its neighbor.

The incident draws comparisons to Israel’s operation in which pagers and communications devices containing hidden explosives were manufactured and sold to the Hezbollah terror group and then detonated in September 2024, wounding thousands of operatives simultaneously.