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War in Ukraine: a Frenchman trains Russian drone pilots
A franceinfo team met Serguei Munier at a training range in eastern Ukraine, occupied by Russian forces.
(FRANCEINFO)
A franceinfo team met Serguei Munier at a training range in eastern Ukraine, occupied by Russian forces.
An appointment is made in a field in Ukraine, somewhere in the Donetsk region, in an area occupied by Russian forces. Dressed in military fatigues, Serguei Munier displays drones with a range of several kilometers, which can travel at 70 km/h and carry rockets “which explode on impact”. He heads a team of drone pilots, whom he trains to use kamikaze drones “en mass” before each attack, to “neutralize targets quickly”. Born in Donbass, this Frenchman, who grew up in France, chose to join the Russian army and considers himself “on the side of the resistance” in the conflict against Ukraine.
Cap and sunglasses propped on his forehead, this thirty-year-old with a thin beard has belonged for less than a year, alongside a handful of other French people, to a unit specializing in drones. It is nicknamed Normandy-Niemen, in reference to a group of French aviators who fought alongside the Soviets during the Second World War. “Today, in terms of kamikaze drones, we manage to have almost the same control of the sky as the Ukrainians”he boasts.
Serguei Munier assures that he has no problem equipping himself, despite Western sanctions against Russia: “This is Chinese equipment that can be purchased on the internet, which we deliver here and assemble piece by piece. We cost around 40-45 euros.” Russia also claims to produce large-scale drones using Russian components.
