“Hello pilot, are you ready to fly? Like the dew before the sun, the enemies will perish. We will continue to reign and thrive in our promised land.” A sweet female voice invites three Ukrainian soldiers into a room. ditch Russian abandoned next to them Bahmut. It is the default message heard when started. little kamikaze drone A homemade weapon that has shown its potential on the Ukrainian fronts for 18 months.
The device weighs only a few grams, Carries one and a half kilos of explosives. “It’s a four-engine brick,” says Alexandr, a soldier in the Man Group battalion. And although the cost is approx. 400 dollars (some 370 euros) can disable russian battleship more than a few million. The first-line three-man team has only nine minutes to achieve this. Seven to move, two to drive. They take off, find a target, fly towards it, and stamp the plane against the weakest points of the enemy vehicle. “It’s every kid’s dream… and all boys are little kids,” sums up Alex, who will turn 33 in September.
piloting with glasses
Almost like in a video game, the pilots wear glasses to control the drone from a bird’s eye view, while the rest watch from a screen. Beyond the electronic defense, there is a major obstacle: the camera is disconnected in the last meters and the blow is made blindly.
“It hurts when you fail, videos are fun for people. They may spend the money on their children, on food or on rent, but with their salary they have decided to contribute to the fight for their freedom,” says Alexandr. So another drone is recording from afar to oversee the maneuver. no, there is always faith.
“What do all the soldiers believe?” a pilot teacher asks again in a tone of voice.
-In God?
“By chance,” he replies, and laughs.
Same luck and humor that his friend Andro had. they destroyed together five armored within a few hours, but they were about to stop increasing enemy casualties. On one of their last missions, a Russian drone followed them. He now lies on a stretcher in a field hospital, raising his thumb as his eyes are cleaned and they heal shrapnel cuts. It was her second day and she might never see it again.
One and a half year attack
Because despite this Vladimir Putin He started the invasion of Ukraine a year and a half ago, the flow of people joining the ranks of the Armed Forces did not stop. Even after the President’s decision Volodymyr Zelensky dismissal of all regional recruiters on suspicion corruption. In these months, the Army has quadrupled its membership and the conflict has spread to many more families, but it has also spread a veil of silence over the people. internal discussions. The wounds of a society divided daily between those who suffer and those who do not. Between those who can leave the country and those who cannot. And between those who put the dead and those who did not.
Alexander was already holding the shields on the front lines during the revolution. SquareWhen riot police shoot from rooftops to brutally beat and kill the police. In his previous life, this soldier divided his time between the three days of the week he spent at the front and the other three days when he returned. test new drones he was a sociologist. A job he left after dawn on February 24, 2022.
“If there’s an enemy ahead of us, it’ll take a minute for us to unite to fight, but when it’s all over… when the enemy isn’t there… I don’t know why, but we fight amongst ourselves. We’re Kazakhs, it’s in our blood,” he says with a sigh. He doesn’t know what to do when he has to go back to daily life, work at a desk without a uniform, away from a brutal war, but something that has captured the minds of many young men who are enlisted to defend their country.
With emotion on his face, Alexandr said, “Everything changes here. New missions, new cities, new people, new adventures… exploding things!” he explains. “But when he comes back… nothing happens. Boredom is the great enemy. There is always a wave of suicides four years after the wars. There are many guys in the military who are used to solving problems. To do and to fulfill. What takes a day here costs a month there. Everything is slow and bureaucratic.”
problems post-war period It is parked by a much more meaningful foundational war than independence achieved 32 years ago on August 24. The result is still a mystery, just as these pilots launch their drones towards their ‘Z’ vehicles. “It will be difficult,” the pilot admits. “After all this, I’m afraid to go back to the office.” Boredom is what’s so far from the trenches that Alexandr watches from the sky under the control of kamikaze drones.