Vinnytski Bdzholy

Vinnytski Bdzholy (Ukrainian for “Vinnytsia Bees”) is a defence-technology startup founded in late 2023 and based in the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia. It builds first-person-view (FPV) strike drones — the VB7, VB10, and VB300 Blitz — and the VB140 Flamingo, a winged interceptor designed to hunt Russian reconnaissance aircraft rather than serve as a strike weapon.

The VB140 Flamingo is the company’s most distinctive system. A fixed-wing design that can be launched by hand, it is built to detect, pursue, and destroy enemy reconnaissance UAVs, particularly the Russian Orlan drones used to direct artillery fire. The firm reports an operating altitude of up to 4.5 kilometres and a range of up to 50 kilometres, with sensors for both day and night operation. The company announced that the Flamingo had completed interagency testing and was ready for introduction into Ukraine’s defence forces.

Interceptors of this kind sit alongside a fast-growing Ukrainian field of dedicated drone-hunters, including the Sting from Wild Hornets and systems backed through state channels such as Brave1 . Where many interceptors target the high-speed Shahed loitering munition, the Flamingo is pitched at the slower reconnaissance UAVs that spot for Russian strikes.