Direct proof of use
The 9K333 Verba appears in the 2014 Russia-Ukraine War record as a Russian short-range air-defense system. In October 2024, Defence Blog reported that Ukrainian forces had seized a Russian 9K333 Verba and that the Ukrainian military had published a detailed review of a captured 9M336 missile manufactured in 2020. Euromaidan Press repeated the same capture report, identifying the seized missile as part of Russia's 9K333 Verba MANPADS system.
A second, later strand of evidence concerns Russian one-way attack drones. Ukraine's War & Sanctions portal, run by the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, published a Geran-2 UAV series "E" configuration with a Verba MPADS listed among its weapons. Ukrainska Pravda reported from that DIU material that the Geran-2 configuration was equipped with a Verba MANPADS and described the control arrangement for launching the missile from the drone. The Aviationist separately analyzed imagery that showed a Verba MANPADS mounted on a Russian Geran-2 found in Ukraine.
Sources: Defence Blog Verba Capture, Euromaidan Press Verba Capture, War Sanctions Geran-2 Verba, Ukrainska Pravda DIU Verba Drone, Aviationist Geran-2 Verba
Timeline
The first directly sourced wartime appearance in this record is October 2024, when reporting described Ukrainian forces seizing a Russian Verba system and reviewing a captured 9M336 missile. The available public reporting supports capture and fielding by Russian forces, but it does not confirm a specific Verba missile firing or shootdown in that incident.
On January 5, 2026, The Aviationist reported that imagery had emerged of a Russian Geran-2 one-way attack drone with a Verba MANPADS mounted on top. On January 12, 2026, DIU's War & Sanctions portal and Ukrainian reporting provided a fuller public breakdown of the Geran-2 series "E" configuration, identifying the Verba-equipped drone, a camera and modem arrangement for manual control, and a retained thermobaric main warhead.
Sources: Defence Blog Verba Capture, Aviationist Geran-2 Verba, War Sanctions Geran-2 Verba, Ukrainska Pravda DIU Verba Drone
Narrative
In Russian service, Verba is a man-portable surface-to-air missile system used for very-short-range air defense against aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aircraft, and cruise missiles. Its documented Ukraine-war record is narrower than its general role: the cited sources show Russian fielding and captured 9M336 missile evidence, then a later Russian adaptation in which a Verba launcher was mounted on a Geran-2 drone.
The Geran-2 evidence points to an experimental or adapted air-defense function rather than an ordinary shoulder-fired MANPADS engagement. DIU's material and subsequent reporting describe operator control, an optical camera, a mesh modem, and staged activation of the MANPADS components from the drone. The same reporting says the drone retained a thermobaric main warhead, meaning the configuration was presented as both an anti-air threat and a strike UAV.
The public sources do not establish a confirmed Verba launch, target, or shootdown in the war. The supported conflict-use claims are that Russian forces fielded Verba/9M336 materiel that Ukrainian forces captured, and that Ukraine later documented a Russian Geran-2 series "E" configuration carrying a Verba MANPADS in the same conflict.
Sources: Rosoboronexport Verba, Defence Blog Verba Capture, War Sanctions Geran-2 Verba, Ukrainska Pravda DIU Verba Drone, UNITED24 HUR Verba Drone
