The war in Ukraine has also become that of the drones. Attack gear but also surveillance. We followed the Orion team, of the Ukrainian territorial defense, on the front line on the eastern front.
When he’s not training, Nazar, 40, and his men are right up front. “We with our guys are really on the front line”, proudly launches this member of the “Orion” team, drone pilots of the 244th Ukrainian Territorial Defense Battalion. While the bombardments continue in Odessa and in the occupied territories, here in the Donbass, in eastern Ukraine, the positions have hardly moved. The Russian army has tried to advance a little in recent days in Kremina north of Sloviansk.
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Some drone pilots prefer to protect themselves in a shelter, Nazar stays outside: “We are more comfortable feeling the wind, you understand what is happening. There, if there is a shot, Isend the drone there. And I’m looking for the tank with the camera.” The lawyer who had never touched a drone before committing has become an intelligence specialist. Behind the front, the command post follows everything it films on screen. “We can correct with an accuracy of 50 cm and the artillery must hit where we have indicated the precise coordinates”, explains Nazar.
They are four in the team. In turn, one pilot, the others watch his back. They only use small civilian drones. “Brother! I found it!”, Nazar shouts to his teammates. In his hand, a plastic case with tweezers. “We clip it like that. Here it has a cell photo, it seems fragile, huh?”, drop the pilot.
“Sometimes the software bugs”
Military tweaks made a 3D mount for dropping VOG fragmentation grenades, Nazar says: “We can attack an armored vehicle with it or target the turret of a tank if it is open”. “Do we fly it? Not too far, it’s windy”, indicates the pilot. To hide their position, software scrambles their precise geolocation. “Sometimes the software bugs and in this case to destroy the pilot, the Russians use all kinds of weapons to eliminate us, says Nazar. The drone operator is currently a bigger target than a sniper.”
An essential position but the Ukrainian pilot wants to be a philosopher: “To be honest, guys, this war is not new. We just added gadgets to it. And so what has changed is the extent of the damage.” Nazar makes it mostly a personal matter, he wants to beat the team of Russian drone pilots who are just on the other side of the forest.
In Ukraine with drone operators: report by Mathilde Dehimi, Arthur Gerbault and Yashar Fazylov
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