Near the infrastructure of the "Caspian Pipeline Consortium," an oil giant in northern Kazakhstan, remnants of a Russian Orlan-10 reconnaissance drone were found in relatively good condition.
The armed forces of Kazakhstan do not possess such drones, making it clear that this UAV was launched by the Russian army, although the Russians are typically denying everything. This was reported by the Polish portal Defence24.
A drone has crashed near the village of Uyaly in Kazakhstan, which local publications have called "similar to the French reconnaissance Crecerelle." However, judging by the photo, the crashed drone is a Russian-made Orlan-10 UAV. Considering that this village is located on the… pic.twitter.com/dEmQysbnyE— OSINT Expert (@OsintExperts) February 20, 2025
It is noted that the security forces of Kazakhstan are already conducting their investigation into this incident, but publicly available information consists mainly of a photo taken at the crash site of the discovered Russian "Orlan-10."
Interestingly, the way the Russians deny their involvement in this incident is quite telling—they claim that this case allegedly involves a French UAV, the SAGEM Crecerelle, without even suggesting where it could have come from.
In this case, we are talking about a UAV that was produced back in the 1990s and had a delta wing design, so there is hardly any visual similarity to the "Orlan-10."
The authors of Defence24 point out that in this manner, Russia has essentially declared, "Yes, it’s us, but what are you going to do about it?" and that this episode signifies an increased threat from the Kremlin to neighboring countries. This is particularly relevant given that Kazakhstan did not choose to "cover" for the Russians in the incident involving the downed Azerbaijani aircraft.
From Defense Express, we would like to add the following to this story. Formally, Kazakhstan has a sufficiently powerful air defense system, which includes 10 batteries of the S-300PS missile system, two batteries of S-75 complexes, and one battery each of the S-200, S-125, and Buk missile systems. However, it is worth noting that the Kazakh military still has to rely on the morally outdated S-75, S-125, and S-200 in their original versions to protect their airspace.
It is also important to understand that Kazakhstan has the lowest density of forces and resources specifically in the north, which borders the Russian Federation, and this circumstance could be exploited by the Russians to carry out "false flag operations" in this region.
