Ukrainian grandma who downed a Russian drone with a ‘jar of tomatoes’ has zero regrets

Danny Jones

Ukrainian grandma downed a Russian drone with a 'jar of tomatoes'

Here’s to an utter legend – right in time for International Women’s Day

There have been so many accounts of brave Ukrainians doing their bit to help the war effort against Vladimir Putin‘s forces recently – but the story of a grandma who downed a Russian drone by throwing a “jar of tomatoes” at it is certainly up there with the best of them.

As per journalist Liubov Tsybulska who writes for Ukrainian outlet LIGA.Life, while many who first came across this story on social media assumed it was an urban myth, it would seem that the story has since been confirmed and corrected by those in the area.

In fact, the grandma has already become a local legend.

pic.twitter.com/1hfImv5RLy

— Liubov Tsybulska (@TsybulskaLiubov) March 5, 2022

Working through a friend, Tsybulska was able to assure readers that the story was real, with her contact explaining that: “this is a real story. My acquaintance’s mother did it.”

The outlet even managed to get in touch with the mystery woman, said to be a grandma living in Kyiv, who downed a Russian drone with nothing more than what most people have in lurking in the back of their cupboard.

However there are still some discrepancies. As you can see, despite many people first reporting the projectile as a jar of cucumbers or pickles – in actual fact it was a jar of tomatoes.

Visualisation of the act of bravery pic.twitter.com/Jjflz62M6j

— Liubov Tsybulska (@TsybulskaLiubov) March 7, 2022

The woman – named only as Olena – wished for her details to remain anonymous for her own safety before she described the incident in detail. It was a story that saw her “sitting on the balcony and smoking” before seeing something floating in the sky.

Scared and unsure what the object was having never seen a drone up-close before, she heard it buzzing and quickly turned to find something to throw at it.

While she admits there may have been something better to throw – she continues to explain that it might have disappeared by the time she returned from finding something – so she instinctively grabbed the jar of tomatoes sitting underneath her chair.

Olena said she acted “probably out of fear”, wondering “what if they start firing at me from there!”, before adding, “what a pity for those tomatoes”.

She says she doesn’t know where “the fables about cucumbers came from” and that a picture posted online of a cracked jar laying on the ground is fake; remarking that “these were tomatoes with plums, my favourites. A litre jar”.