The sun is fading on the hills of Donbas. The driver turns off the lights, accelerates and travels, almost from memory, along the leaky road to the position from which the team will launch its drones against the Russian troops. They work at night. The full moon illuminates the road, but also the vehicle. Small fireballs stitch the sky together. The Bakhmut front (in the east) is a hive of artillery thundering and drone bombs buzzing. "Anyway, if they give us we won't see it, we'll feel it," Annya muses, adjusting her helmet. The soldier and her companion Yaroslav get out of the car almost in motion, go through the frozen mud, enter a basement and unfold the material. They're at ground zero, where the fighting is meter by meter. Yaroslav pulls out one of the drones and hooks a projectile to it. With one of those, you could blow up a tank. "The Russians are trying to hunt us down, but we see them. And we can catch up with them," he says.
Moscow's soldiers are less than a mile from the position from which the Ochi (Eyes) brigade operates its drones. The area is extremely dangerous and the car cannot be left. Yuri, the group's driver, a burly military veteran of the Donbas war, will pick up his comrades when the first light of day breaks. Yaroslav ties his sharp, straw beard and pulls his head out of the basement with one of the devices. Annya sipses an energy drink and checks the coordinates on a laptop screen where Russian positions are revealed. The night is long.
Yaroslav and Annya at home, before leaving for a mission on the Bakhmut front.
The battle is intense and in the face of a lack of ammunition and the Ukrainian military's reliance on Western aid, attack drones have become crucial in Russia's war against Ukraine. The fierce struggle of Soviet-made tanks and artillery, of sharp defenses and quagmires curdled with technique more typical of the 20th century, is also, and increasingly, the battle of drones. Especially civil unmanned aircraft, which are light and more affordable. Russia and Ukraine use them and "adapt them to their military needs," explains Marina Miron, a researcher in the Department of War Studies at King's College London. "The reality on the battlefield has created a need that could not be met quickly enough by the military industry," she says. And drones began to proliferate.
Previously, the Ochi team operated during the day and mainly civilian reconnaissance drones, such as DJI's Chinese-made Mavic quadcopters, equipped with good cameras with which to detect Russian positions that will later be targeted by artillery brigades. Flight. Localization. Information. Shot. But few want to work at night, Yaroslav explains (following the rules of the Ukrainian army, the military do not reveal their surnames). And even less so in the villages surrounding Bakhmut, the fortress city that eventually fell to Russia last summer after the bloodiest urban battle of the full-scale war. The group reformed and began to work in the dark and gradually introduced drones adapted to attack: quadcopter aircraft revamped to launch projectiles and grenades or hit the target, like kamikazes. "It's them or us," says Annya.
Annya, on the Bakhmut front. The Ochi brigade now operates only at night. María Sahuquillo
The team now also operates the so-called First Person View (FPV), drones with first-person view, very manageable, fast and relatively cheap to which they attach projectiles with harnesses and flanges that they manufacture themselves with a 3D printer. Most of the time, brigades like yours fund parts and material out of pocket or through donations. In the damp basement, lit by a light bulb, Yaroslav puts on the goggles with which he operates the FPV drone and climbs into the head of the already loaded aircraft. It's not a video game. Russia's war, now in its third year, has claimed tens of thousands of lives, destroyed thousands of homes, displaced millions of refugees and blown up the global security architecture.
Military drones have been a key factor in wars for years. Ukraine had Leleka-100 drones and has used Turkish-made Bayraktars, which also provided an oceanic advantage for Azerbaijan in the war against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020. Al Bayraktar has even made songs in Ukrainian. Between April and May 2022, Kyiv's army began using smaller commercial drones for surveillance and reconnaissance, explains Marina Miron. He then adapted them to attack Russian equipment and personnel. The Kremlin caught up "very quickly" and introduced Iranian-made Shaheds, the King's College researcher said. Now, both employ drones to solve battlefield tasks, correct artillery fire, and overwhelm air defense systems. Russia also uses them as swarms, combined with missiles.
Annya and Yaroslav, from the Ochi Brigade. The group initially operated reconnaissance drones, but little by little they have also introduced bomb drones. María Sahuquillo
There are civilian aircraft that can be adapted for reconnaissance or attack for between 2,000 euros, the most tactical, and 400 euros. In Russia, too, cost is a variable. "An Iranian Shahed 136 drone costs about $20,000, while a Kalibr missile costs $950,000. However, it does not cause the same damage," Miron clarifies.
Special Doctrine
For military analyst Mikhailo Samus, this will "definitely" be the year of war drones. The Ukrainian army now has an attack company of these aircraft in almost every brigade, a special doctrine is being created for this type of technology and will end up being a specific branch, such as the Marine Corps or the air force, says the renowned expert. But while Ukraine has shown itself superior in the handling of naval drones, such as those it has used to attack the Black Sea Fleet or the Kerch bridge (Crimea), Miron explains, Russia has developed a series of "countermeasures" to protect its equipment and has deployed several electromagnetic warfare systems, such as the Shipovnik Aero, which it also uses to shoot down Ukrainian drones.
Kyiv is now working on a new project to train 2,600 FPV drone pilots. The next step will be to integrate artificial intelligence, explains analyst Samus, to make it easier to find the tank and armored vehicles of enemy troops on the battlefield. "With this, an operator could use several drones at the same time," says the expert.
The Ochi brigade, meanwhile, is looking for a third operator. Now their mechanics are always the same: they sleep during the day, they make more material for the aircraft, they go to the position at all costs under the rain of artillery that illuminates the sunset, and they operate their drones from the basement. Night after night. Two years ago, Annya had another life. The 34-year-old female physiotherapist lived in Kyiv with her boyfriend. They had plans. Dreams. He was born and raised in the Donetsk region and lived through the Donbas war. When Russia amassed troops along Ukraine's borders, it joined the territorial defense brigades and began training.
On February 24, 2022, when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his attacks on Ukraine by land, sea, and air, Annya and her boyfriend enlisted. He was killed by the Russians last winter. She changed brigades in the spring. It now operates bomb drones in one of the battle's hotspots, as rockets and mortars resound. "I think here, for now, I can contribute, make a difference," he says. Beside him, between wires, nods Yaroslav, a 35-year-old father of three. Before the full-scale invasion, he ran a company in Kyiv. He has now been in the quagmire of Donbas for almost two years. Both are finding it increasingly difficult to stay hooked on civilian life.
Outside the basement, in the grey villages of the Bakhmut front, there is hardly anyone left. In Chasiv Yar, a city where some 12,500 souls lived before the invasion, turned into the new Bakhmut by the Russian siege, only the bombs can be heard. In July, a Kremlin attack vandalized the Palace of Culture, which served as a delivery point for humanitarian aid. The building is now a jumble of rubble. On one of the façades, graffiti shows Valeri Zaluzhni, commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, making the V for Victory. Russia's war against Ukraine has become entrenched in the area. Moscow's soldiers have taken some of the positions that Ukrainian troops had recaptured in the spring.
The invaded country is bracing for a long war as it fears that Western support will falter and the funds that keep the country afloat — and the weapons that allow it to resist — will no longer arrive. Kiev is trying to increase the manufacture of weapons and drones, the Minister of Strategic Industries, Oleksandr Kamyshin, told EL PAÍS. According to its calculations, this year it will be able to produce one million FPV drones, more than 10,000 medium-range bomb drones (between 600 and 800 kilometers) and 1,000 long-range kamikaze drones (more than a thousand kilometers). "Terrestrial robotic systems are also vital. They can save lives by replacing soldiers on the battlefield. Functions such as demining, medical evacuation and logistics, which are very dangerous, can and should also be performed by robots," says the minister. Kamyshin also assures that after the war, Ukraine will become a key global player in this type of technology. "Drones are changing the rules of the game in this war," he adds.
For the Ochi Brigade, of course, they have changed everything. From the basement in which a small generator hums, they recount better times when they could not imagine themselves in a dark swamp or in the middle of the snow dropping drone bombs at the Kremlin's forces. "Russia wants to erase our nation, to wipe out our democracy. This is a war and we are each doing what we can," says Annya. "I don't know if Europe is ready, but if Putin moves forward he won't stay in Ukraine. And there will be a lot of people like us, a lot of basements like this," Yaroslav nods.
Yuri and Yarloslav prepare the vehicle for a mission on the Bakhmut front.
Yaroslav, from the Ochi drone brigade, next to the 3D printer they use to make material, just before leaving for a mission on the Bakhmut front.
Annya, from the Ochi drone brigade, with her cat Haley, before leaving on a mission on the Bakhmut front.
Annya, from the Ochi group that fights with drones, in Chasiv Yar.María Sahuquillo
The Ochi group operates at so-called ground zero, where fighting against Russian troops is meter by meter. They launch their drones from a basement on the front of Bakhmut.María Sahuquillo
Annya and Yaroslav of the Ochi Brigade. In the beginning, the group operated reconnaissance drones, but little by little they have also introduced bomb drones.
Annya, from the Ochi drone group, prepares the logistics to operate the aircraft against Russian troops on the Bakhmut front.
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