Ukrainian Woman Shoots Down Russian Drone Using Jar Of Tomatoes

A Ukrainian woman who allegedly brought down what was initially believed to be a Russian military drone with a jar of pickles said she will stand and fight in the face of Russia's invasion of her country.

The woman, identified only as Elena, encountered the remote-controlled machine as she was smoking and sitting on the balcony of her home in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, Liga.life reported.

Elena, who has never seen a drone up close before until that moment, said she grabbed a jar of preserved plum tomatoes from under her chair and threw it at the machine "out of fear," according to the outlet.

"I was scared... What if [the drone] started firing at me from there?" Elena was quoted as saying.

She and her husband then destroyed what remained of the drone and scattered the wreckage across various garbage cans so that they would not cut the paws of any dogs in the area.

The story of Elena's encounter with the drone later went viral on social media, where people claimed that the downed machine could be from the Russian military and that the weapon Elena used to take it out was a jar of cucumbers.

However, the grandmother clarified that she used a 1-liter-sized jar that contained preserved plum tomatoes, which she called her "favorite."

"What a pity for those tomatoes. I don't know where the fables about cucumbers came from," said Elena, who also dismissed purported pictures of the incident as fake.

Additionally, she said that rather than the Russian military, the drone was likely operated by looters who were looking for apartments without owners.

"The neighbor noticed suspicious young men, and when she began to ask loudly who they were and where they were from, they quickly fled. Peaceful people wouldn't do that," Elena explained.

Elena's description of the drone did not match the heavy, military types that are used to launch weapons, but it would fit the smaller, commercial ones that are primarily used to record images, a report by Business Insider said.

Modern militaries still currently operate the latter, according to the outlet.

Members of the Russian National Guard who were captured in Kharkiv during the first days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine carried drones along with other equipment, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Elena now plans to remain in Kyiv, where she still works in a small shop that sells household chemicals.

"This is my home, my land. I will stand, gnaw, fight, fight. All that is necessary," she said.