TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Tuesday (March 28) denied claims that Taiwan is sending 1,000 suicide drones to help Ukraine with a future counteroffensive to recapture Crimea.
On Monday (March 27), international relations researcher and Twitter user "PStyleOne1," alleged that "Taiwan has provided Ukraine with almost 1,000 drones that have the function of a swarm and are able to interact with each other in automatic mode." He added that The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine purportedly plans to use these drones for a counterattack on Crimea.
In a comment under the tweet, he pointed out that he prefaced the original post with the acronym RUMINT, which he described as "Rumor intelligence" and emphasized that this is not verified. He said the information had been spreading on Russian and Ukrainian channels and justified uploading the post because "I have reasons to believe Taiwan has provided something," but that he did not know what it was.
The National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST, 中科院) on March 14 unveiled a new domestically-developed kamikaze drone similar to the U.S. Switchblade. The new drone can be carried in a backpack, is launched from a tube, and can reach a target about 10 kilometers away.
Newtalk on Monday reported that some Taiwanese netizens have speculated that gifting these suicide drones to Ukraine would enable Taiwan's military to conduct a "live demonstration" of its new military drones. This would allegedly deter China by demonstrating the performance of the drones in Eastern Europe without directly provoking Beijing in the Taiwan Strait.
However, MOFA on Tuesday issued a press release in which it stressed that the information provided in the tweet was not true. The ministry said it will promptly collect the relevant screenshots and false news reports and present them to the police.
The ministry urged the public not to trust information from unknown sources on the internet and to not spread false information or rumors to avoid violating the law. In addition, MOFA pointed out that the Twitter account claimed in the comments section that the "so-called information that Taiwan is providing thousands of drones is RUMINT," which is unverified information and is "purely based on the judgment of a personal tweet."
It called on media outlets to fulfill their responsibilities of verification before making such reports in order to avoid misleading the public and causing "unnecessary trouble."
New Taiwan-made suicide drone. (AP photo)
RUMINT‼️
"Taiwan has provided Ukraine with almost 1,000 drones that have the function of a swarm and are able to interact with each other in automatic mode. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine intends to use them in the counterattack on the Crimea"#Ukraine pic.twitter.com/3KdehStPBf
— @PStyleOne1 (@PStyle0ne1) March 26, 2023
