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The shaky livestream showed a man in military fatigues sitting at a laptop placed on a low table, next to stacks of what appeared to be plastic explosives. Wires dangled from a wall, which was draped in some kind of insulating foil.
“Go ahead Kubanac,” said a man in the bottom righthand corner of the screen, who was hosting the TikTok livestream one November night last year under the account name ‘dario_ristic_brzii’.
Kubanac, meaning ‘Cuban’, proceeded to assemble and arm what Dario Ristic told the livestream viewers was an ‘FPV’ drone, a First-Person View unmanned aircraft fitted with a camera that sends a live feed to goggles worn by the operator. Such drones have been used to deadly effect by both sides in the Ukraine war.
“Here we go, live coverage,” said Ristic. Other voices chip in: “Kubanac, fire away for your brothers”, and “Let the hunt begin”.
They spoke in Serbian, but Kubanac was fighting for the Russians.
Welcome to TikTok coverage of the war in Ukraine, brought to the more than 10,000 followers of Ristic’s profile.
A Bosnian Serb, Ristic also fought on the side of the Russians until September last year, when he surrendered to Bosnian authorities. It is illegal in Bosnia to fight in foreign wars.
Picture showing Dario Ristic in Ukraine. Photo: VKontakte
After a brief period in detention, Ristic is currently confined to the municipality of Modrica in northeastern Bosnia and required to report regularly to the authorities pending a decision by prosecutors as to whether to indict him.
The prospect of spending between three and 10 years behind bars has not dimmed his enthusiasm for the war, however.
Since returning to Bosnia, he has hosted several live streams, patching in Serb mercenaries in Ukraine or briefing his followers on developments in the war and how to operate drones.
“I only like killing Nazis,” he said on one of his TikTok appearances, which this reporter joined live.
Experts say such content constitutes dangerous propaganda.
“Such actors function as informal mediators of influence, shaping perceptions, normalising violence, and creating a symbolic framework in which participation in war is portrayed as acceptable or desirable behaviour,” said Kenan Hodzic, a senior assistant at the Sarajevo Faculty of Criminalistics, Criminology and Security Studies.
“It is precisely this gray area between political stance, propaganda and indirect recruitment that poses one of the greatest security risks, as it makes timely institutional response difficult, while at the same time enabling the spread of narratives that undermine the legal order.”
‘Greetings from the Serbs’
Ristic declined to talk to BIRN, referring this reporter to his lawyer, Rade Culibrk.
Culibrk said he had expected an indictment to be filed in January, but that he had still not received word from the prosecution.
Culibrk said Ristic had admitted his crime in his first statement to prosecutors.
“We already have an agreement in principle,” he said. “After the indictment is confirmed and the plea hearing, a plea deal will be concluded.”
In the meantime, Ristic is still doing his bit for the Russian fight, only this time from the comfort of his home in Modrica, against a backdrop depicting Jesus Christ.
In the live stream from November, Kubanac did the filming and loaded a drone with what appeared to be a warhead.
At the request of those tuning in, he wrote on it a “dedication” in Cyrillic that read: “Greetings from the Serbs”.
A voice is heard saying in Serbian: “I just joined live on my wife’s phone to see Kubanac take someone out, so she can see how it’s done, man.”
Independent defence analysts consulted by BIRN confirmed that the device shown in the video appears to be an explosive device commonly used on repurposed commercial drones and packed with plastic explosives.
The Ukrainian analytical channel Spectator published the picture of the 0FBCH-3 high-explosive fragmentation warhead identical to the one from Ristic’s TikTok live stream. Photo: Detektor
They launched the drone, but the laptop screen eventually went blank and Kubanac said the aircraft had fallen in “enemy territory”. He blamed fog.
‘Classic propaganda effect’
BIRN has identified Kubanac as Aleksandar Kubatovic, who publicly admitted joining Russian forces in Ukraine in 2023.
Believed to be in his forties, Kubatovic was reported dead in December by numerous Telegram channels covering the battlefront. BIRN could not independently confirm this.
In the November livestream, he was eventually removed after appearing with a cigarette and a knife. Ristic, as host, said TikTok had issued a warning.
“Explosives are ok, but not smokes,” commented one of the viewers.
At several points during the live stream, Ristic blocked certain people. Using pseudonyms, BIRN joined via a number of different accounts.
When asked by one of these accounts whether he planned to return to Russia, Ristic replied: “Yes, of course. I don’t know. It’s absolutely irrelevant whether I’d go or not. Guys, I’m a Russian citizen, so…”
Culibrk, Ristic’s lawyer, said he had no knowledge of his client’s TikTok activity, nor that it was pertinent to his case.
Ristic controls a drone for TikTok content in front of the family house in Modrica in BiH. Photo: Screenshot/TikTok “FPV dron Brzi”
But Natasa Kilibarda, an analyst and digital forensics expert in Belgrade, Serbia, said Ristic’s live streams demonstrated just how far legal and security frameworks are behind the curve.
“This, let’s say, ‘aestheticization’ of war is particularly problematic, because even when we don’t see an explicit call for violence, the effect is that war is portrayed as something exciting, legitimate, and socially recognised,” Kilibarda told BIRN. “In the end, this has a classic propaganda effect.”
Kilibarda also stressed the failure of tech firms such as TikTok to respond.
Since the November live stream, Ristic has renamed his TikTok channel ‘FPV drone Brzi’, brzi meaning ‘fast’.
Of late, his posts contain only drone footage, which he also promotes on profiles of the same name on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.
TikTok did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
