Inside a frontline drone ‘laboratory’ creating new ways for Ukraine’s troops to hit Putin’s forces
Walking through the drone operators’ base, made up of buildings left standing amid the fierce fighting in a village near the town of Siversk in the eastern region of Donetsk, a soldier using the war name “Kucheryaviy” – Ukrainian for “Curly”, an ironic play on his shaved head – talks me through exactly how much explosive is required to take out an armoured vehicle with a “bomber” drone.
“We can fill them with more explosives, between 600 and 700 grams usually, enough to destroy or disable a light armoured vehicle. A tank is more difficult, but it can be done if the bomb is dropped in the right place. The explosive in anti-personnel versions can be surrounded by ball bearings or nails.”
As we walk, I notice that camouflage net coverings are draped across open walkways to prevent the base from being seen by the Russians. Drone operators on both sides of the war know they are each other’s new favourite target.
As Ukrainian and Russian forces have fought themselves to a grinding, air-defence systems and planes raining death down from above.
