An ordinary house in an ordinary village near the Pokrovsk front in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine has become a center for adapting drones for combat. It’s impossible to guess from the outside what’s going on within its walls. Facilities of this type are springing up like mushrooms to supply the growing needs of the Ukrainian army, especially the five units specialized in unmanned aerial weapons that make up a defensive line hundreds of kilometers long, once again seeking to act as a bulwark against the Russian offensive.
The project was presented to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in February. “Some days we deliver up to 100 [drones], although the normal number is around 20,” explains Flint (a nom de guerre), 46, a member of the 68th Brigade, surrounded by tools, blades, motors, cables, cardboard boxes, 3D printers, and all kinds of junk. It’s a controlled chaos amid the furniture in the various rooms, leaving barely enough space to move.
Drones are delivered to this residence from both the government and private entities. They arrive as civilian-use devices and leave ready to attack Russian positions. These are not high-tech weapons, but rather high-need for immediate consumption. The use of this type of low-cost unmanned aircraft has skyrocketed. The vast majority are small FPV (First Person View) kamikaze drones. They are launched at the enemy and detonate with no possibility of return or reuse.
Up to a dozen people toil in this workshop-house, which continues to grow due to the needs imposed by the conflict. Basically, they adapt the control system, as well as the video and radio signals of the drones. It’s a half-hour task for each of the basic models, says Vadim, 41, who previously worked in a computer components office in Khmelnytskyi. Although most are kamikazes, in some cases a clamp is installed on the bottom that can support up to one and a half kilos of weight. Typically, this clamp is used to transport an explosive device that is dropped from the air onto the designated target before returning the drone to base. In other cases, they are used to send medicine, water, food, ammunition, or batteries to places inaccessible by land.
Members of the Achilles drone unit with an unmanned aircraft on the Kharkiv front on May 13.Luis de Vega
In any case, the workshop also handles larger drones that can reach greater distances and carry more weight, as demonstrated by Serhii, 31, from the Zytomyr region. With these, explains this former employee of a medical equipment company, they are able to strike in areas beyond Russian positions, up to 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) away, and damage larger targets, such as logistics facilities.
The improvements being implemented are constantly evolving, and the changes are becoming obsolete due to the ongoing competition between Russians and Ukrainians in the drone battle, say the workers who operate them. On the frontlines, the objective of the military on both sides is to intercept and jam the video and radio signals of enemy aircraft. “This competition is a constant race, like a game of cat and mouse,” summarizes Flint, a native of the western region of Lviv who was a graphic designer before joining the army. The soldier recalls that when the workshop opened last year, the drones practically went straight to the front, fresh out of the packaging, with hardly any improvements.
They’re aware that they’re up against a state machine like Moscow’s, with far greater resources at all levels, emphasizes Serhii, who came to the workshop after first being a drone pilot. “We try to find our own solutions to the problems and needs posed by modern warfare and thus try to facilitate the work of the infantry and save lives with drones,” adds Flint.
“Rambo, in his films, wanted to win the war alone. Here, it’s better for everyone to do it together. Drones alone aren’t going to achieve it,” explains Darham, 33, who was an infantryman a few months ago and is now a member of the specialized Achilles drone unit (one of the five that make up the defensive line). From his position on the Kupiansk front (Kharkiv region), he acknowledges that the current arms race has become cheaper with drones, which are used both for defense and attack. He estimates that one of the commonly used kamikazes, with its battery and bomb, costs around €500 (around $575). “With six or seven of those, we can destroy a tank. How much does a tank cost?”
Leonid, 30, originally from the Rivne region, was precisely one of those frontline infantrymen before ending up in the drone units, first as a pilot, and now as a member of the workshop. He proudly shows a video of one of the operations he has participated in. The footage shows the drone flying toward several pipes where a Russian soldier is hiding. The pilot, with great precision, manages to insert the device into the pipe and blow it up, along with the soldier.
That mission was carried out with one of the new drones that have revolutionized the front because they use a fiber-optic cable up to 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) long, wound on a reel. Therefore, they don’t require radio control, making their detection and interception very difficult. Here too, the competition between Russians and Ukrainians is fierce. This model also has a much sharper front-facing video camera image, making the drones easier to control while flying. On the downside, they present navigation problems due to the cable, which can become entangled in trees, power lines, or any other obstacle it encounters.
Red (with goggles), an Achilles unit pilot, controls the flight of a kamikaze drone over Russian positions on the Kharkiv front on May 13.Luis De Vega Hernández
Red, a 29-year-old drone pilot, shows a piece of the thin fiber-optic thread, similar to fishing line. This member of the Achilles unit manipulates and bends it to demonstrate that it breaks easily and that the Ukrainians still need to improve their production quality. For now, in his position near the front, virtually all the drones they use are radio-controlled.
Meanwhile, in the rear, his colleagues in charge of handling the drones are constantly researching new tools to improve their effectiveness against the Russians. “This is safer than the front,” Vadim says, as he raises his head to the welder he’s working with next to a lamp. But who knows if they won’t soon have to close down the post and move to another location? Along the surrounding roads, excavators are digging trenches, erecting barriers with hundreds of dragon’s teeth (concrete obstacles), and forming earthen walls to hinder a possible advance by Russian troops.
Trenches, earthen mounds, and dragon’s teeth to impede the advance of Russian troops in the Donetsk region.Luis De Vega Hernández
Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition