Direct proof of use
The F1 hand grenade is documented in the 2014 Russia-Ukraine War as both a legacy defensive fragmentation grenade and a larger payload for small drone drops. CTC West Point's 2025 review of Russo-Ukrainian drone warfare states that Mavic-type commercial quadcopters became light bombers used extensively by both sides and that a typical larger grenade carried by such drones is a fragmentation hand grenade like the F1.
Ukrainian-specific reports place the F1 in drone-drop use from the early months of the full-scale invasion. DroneDJ reported a March 2022 video claim that a local Ukrainian company was testing a DJI Phantom 4 drop system with an F1 grenade, while also noting that the short video did not independently confirm the pilot or combat circumstances. DroneXL later reported a July 2022 case in which a Ukrainian Mavic 3 dropped an F1 hand grenade on Russian troops near Novohryhorivka, Mykolaiv Oblast.
Sources: CTC West Point Moving Targets, DroneDJ Ukraine Grenade Drop, DroneXL Mavic 3 F1 Drop
Timeline
Open reporting tied the F1 to improvised Ukrainian drone payload work by March 2022, less than a month after Russia's full-scale invasion. That report treated the footage cautiously, but it identified the munition claim as an F1 grenade dropped from a DJI Phantom 4-type commercial drone.
By July 2022, OSINT-linked reporting described a Ukrainian DJI Mavic 3 dropping an F1 hand grenade on Russian troops under a bridge near Novohryhorivka. Later institutional analysis treated this kind of Mavic-carried hand-grenade payload as part of a broader pattern, not an isolated experiment.
Sources: DroneDJ Ukraine Grenade Drop, DroneXL Mavic 3 F1 Drop, CTC West Point Moving Targets
Narrative
The F1's conflict role is shaped by the war's combination of trench fighting, commercial drones, and large stocks of Soviet-pattern infantry weapons. As a hand grenade, it fits close-range defensive and assault fighting; as a drone payload, it became one of the heavier fragmentation grenades that a Mavic-type quadcopter could carry as a single dropped munition.
The clearest source-backed pattern is drone delivery rather than a complete accounting of every F1 thrown by infantry. CTC West Point describes both Russian and Ukrainian forces using Mavic-type drop drones extensively, with F1-style fragmentation grenades among the larger payloads. The event reports identify Ukrainian drops or claimed tests against Russian targets, while the broader institutional source supports use by both sides.
Sources: CTC West Point Moving Targets, DroneDJ Ukraine Grenade Drop, DroneXL Mavic 3 F1 Drop
