One of our primary concerns in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), as we rushed to assist counterparts in Ukraine in Spring 2022, was how to support them on a personal level against tiredness.
Staff in Kyiv had been working ceaselessly to protect their people against a danger which was evolving. They had hardly slept. Many had not seen their families for weeks.
Along the other support we offered, we tried to advise them to rest; though anything I tried to suggest diplomatically came across as patronising.
The Ukrainians understood the existential nature of the invasion, their fellow Ukrainians and for their country. Many said that they had no choice but to work, to resist, and to fight.
Moreover, they understood how their work supported millions of Ukrainians, especially those enslaved by the Russians, and how all their particular lines of effort were intertwined with the defence of the country.
Fatigue can take many forms and shifts over time. Mitigations have to adapt. Spring 2022 seems a lifetime away, but it is incredible to me that Ukrainians continue to fight, to display unthinkable bravery.
They will tell you that they are not being courageous. They will tell you that they have no choice, that they have no other country. They understand that what they do impacts on the lives of their fellow Ukrainians. And they know – and we should affirm – that what they do impacts on our lives, our security and safety and welfare. We can not turn our backs now.
I am honoured to be able to host here the words of Daria Zhydkova, an UAV pilot for a reconnaissance unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces called the Hell Hornets, which has been operating in Donetsk Oblast since the start of the invasion.
As we risk losing sight of the humanity of this war and abstracting grand peace plans that trade off other people’s lives for our comfort, I would ask people to take note of the personal aspects of Daria’s work, and to consider how every individual’s efforts impact on us all. Drones, as Daria says, save lives. Not abstractly - but real people’s lives: men, women, and children.
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From Daria Zhydkova:
Before I joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces, I already had an idea that drones were important at the front, yet the bigger picture on how exactly they are changing the game in modern warfare was missing from me. Ironically, I later trained as a drone operator myself. Below are some ideas and observations that I can make some months after joining the army (so, apologies in advance to all my more experienced colleagues).
I am part of a unit that is in charge of reconnaissance and monitoring in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, that has been lately witnessing the most fierce fighting and advance of the Russian army – a Reconnaissance Unit named the Hell Hornets.
Perhaps a good place to start is to define the key functions that drones can perform (and are performing) in a warfare of the kind we are witnessing at the moment in Ukraine. These are:
Reconnaissance: drones are used to identify troops, vehicles, facilities and equipment of all kinds that are used by the other side, be they hiding or moving (but moving is certainly easier). Night vision, or thermal, cameras are used during the night, which allows the operations to run non-stop 24/7, apart from in very poor weather: heavy rain, snow and strong wind. The data that is collected may feed into larger bits of analysis helping the command point to get into the head of an imaginary Russian colonel who gives orders, or – which is more straightforward and brings us to another function the drone operators can also be involved in…
Targeting: Depending on their type, some drones can carry explosives, which come in a variety of forms – both regular explosive ordnance or improvised charges made of everything available at a good military home.
Ukrainian-developed bomber drone called the Vampire. Along with targeting, it is often used to deliver essential supplies to the soldiers at the positions. Screenshot from a video by the Flying Skull unit.
Small and cheap FPV drones are the most popular (one may cost as little as £250, spare parts ordered from a Chinese retailer online and delivered by post) – they have proven extremely efficient and capable of heavily damaging or even destroying big pieces of equipment and machinery. Compare this with the cost of a TM-72 tank, the most numerous in Russia, which stands at about $1.2 million.
Yet even the simple commercial drones, like the DJI Mavic 3, can be fitted with a mechanism able to carry an explosive item – which makes these light drones made for filming holiday Instagram videos extremely versatile. We can also mention bombers that are constructed in a similar fashion to mini jets. But I shall not dwell too much on them, as they go beyond the ‘regular’ equipment that a unit like mine uses…
Commercial drones like the DJI Mavic 3E can also be used as a bomber. Cheaply priced and widely available, commercial drones remain crucial in supporting military operations. Photo credit: Hell Hornets
During reconnaissance, the operators report what they see – and so the drones support other units in their work, being, essentially, their eyes on the battlefield. For example, thanks to the video transmitted by a drone, artillery is able to see if they need to keep firing into a specific sector. The infantry will be informed instantly if the enemy moves closer or starts to attack. Monitoring from the air helps to increase the distance between the parties (it is now very difficult to move unnoticed), and therefore to reduce human losses to at least some extent.
Logistics: Drones are used to deliver food, water, medication and equipment by air to the locations that are not easily accessible by land – reducing the need for infantry to move in and out of the positions.
Photo credit: Hell Hornets
I have to say that my countrymen deserve all the credit for their creative approach, allowing us to get the most from a cheap technology that had nothing to do with war in its original conceptualisation. While there are specific drones made to carry out all of the functions I just described, it is fair to say that relatively inexpensive and thus easily replaceable commercial drones (around £2,500 for a DJI Mavic 3E) are what the military rely on for most of their daily operations – which is why they are so important in a dynamic environment like the one at the frontline in Ukraine.
Reducing human losses at all cost is essential for Ukraine, considering that we are operating against a much larger army, and our own human resource is not infinite. Drone recce allows to replace a significant part of highly risky on-the-ground operations involving unnecessary movement of the military personnel, and therefore to save lives.