The story, released in the middle of summer, is surprising to those looking for a minimum of coherence in the ordering of the world. All wars have their aberrations, but “the level of cynicism of this one is beyond comprehension”tweeted about him the journalist of the Kyiv Independent, Iryna Matviyishyn. The statement of the case is in two sentences. The father, the engineer Alexander Zakharov, sometimes nicknamed “the new Kalashnikov”, develops and produces in Moscow kamikaze drones called Lancet, particularly deadly in Ukraine. The son, Lavrentii Zakharov, has been active since May in a UN office in Geneva, in order to “to prevent and limit the impact of the uncontrolled proliferation and use of conventional weapons and ammunition”.
Published end of July by independent Russian media iStoriesthe information was confirmed on August 6 at the Geneva Grandstand by the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), whose mission is to establish “a stable and more secure world, in which States and populations are protected from the threat of arms”. Lavrentii Zakharov is on internship for six months, renewable once. According to UNIDIR, “he was selected, like all interns, through a competitive and transparent recruitment process on the basis of his qualifications, skills and experience for this position”.
The intern has thus already passed since 2021 through United Nations agencies located in New York and Rome. According to the institute’s website, his research interests include “strengthening arms and ammunition management, as well as demining and humanitarian access”. His filiation, and the extreme sensitivity of it, was it even mentioned during the hiring or was it the subject of particular attention? UNIDIR, questioned, does not answer the question.
Speed of 300 km/h
Rather precise, the Lancet drone occupies a prominent place in the Russian war machine in Ukraine, and Moscow recently announced that it wanted to triple its production. It is a “prowling ammunition” designed by the company Zala Aero which, in addition to its leader Alexander Zakharov, also employs several other members of the family, but not the Geneva trainee.
The latest version of this killer drone weighs only twelve kilos for a range of over forty kilometers, far behind the front line. It is more and more often used by the Russian forces, which complicates the Ukrainian counter-offensive.
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