Sparrows were cheeping as the sun set over a field of tall yellow sunflowers when a moped-like growl suddenly disturbed the evening calm. The noise rose, dipped, and rose again. Lt Col Ray – a Ukrainian commander with the ۴۱۴th aviation brigade – took cover in a leafy ditch.
Seconds later a Ukrainian drone roared into a mauve sky. It jerked upwards at a ۴۵-degree angle, orange flames fizzing, and then motored serenely onwards. The flying object resembled a sleek grey biplane with a wooden propeller and tail. It left behind clouds of billowing black smoke and a whiff of gunpowder.
Four and a half years after Vladimir Putin sent tanks to seize Kyiv, the war in Ukraine has moved from the earth to the sky, turning into a battle of drones. This contest – unprecedented in the history of warfare – features technology, innovation and rapid development.
“We are making history here. This is where democracy beats totalitarianism. It’s like George Orwell. But this time Big Brother loses,” Ray said, as the drone vanished over the horizon, engine thrumming. Its destination was Crimea, a scenic Ukrainian peninsula of beaches and white chalk mountains, stolen by Russia in ۲۰۱۴, and militarised thereafter.
Next, two more long-range drones hurtled forward. They soared into the twilight, above a darkening steppe landscape. Each carried ۵۰-۱۰۰kg of explosives. Mission over, the Ukrainian soldiers packed briskly, winding up white cables with practised ease. Within ۱۰ minutes the men were gone. They disappeared down a tree-lined and potholed track.
Far away from the frontline, other crews were crisscrossing Ukraine, releasing drones according to a precise evening schedule. Operators sitting in front of computer screens nudged them towards enemy targets. The model can fly more than ۲,۵۰۰km, far enough to pummel anywhere in European Russia, and much of Siberia as well.
The journey made by Ray’s trio of drones was shorter. After four hours, at about ۱am, the first reached its endpoint: the holiday resort of Alushta on the southern coast of occupied Crimea. The drone weaved between grey apartment blocks and crashed into a ۱۱۰kV electricity substation. Flames erupted, pricking the city’s inky blackness.
These remote strikes on ۲۱ July were part of what Ukraine has nicknamed the Crimean “switch off”: a campaign to disconnect the region from its power and logistics networks. The same night, unmanned drones hit ۱۳ electricity nodes. Several were located in the Russian-controlled parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson provinces, which the Kremlin says it has annexed.
Since ۲۰۲۲ Russia has carried out nightly attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns. It sends Iranian-designed shaheeds as well as ballistic and hypersonic missiles. After Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, these swarms grew. They rain down chaotically, killing families in their apartments and other civilians, in a calculated campaign of terror.
Once a recipient of western assistance, Ukraine has responded by developing its own military manufacturing base. After rapid growth, the country has become the world’s leading unmanned systems power. The drones hurled last week at Crimea were built in Kyiv by a defence technology startup. The firm’s representatives take part in operations.
Ray’s battalion – named after Kairos, the ancient Greek god of opportunity, luck and the fleeting moment – has carried out hundreds of deep strikes against Russia. Targets have included oil refineries, warehouses and munitions depots. It has also struck ports and harbours, as well as routes used for army logistics such as roads and railways.
In ۲۰۲۶ Ukrainian drones have struck Moscow and Putin’s home city of St Petersburg, embarrassing Russia’s president and bringing the war home to ordinary citizens who have previously ignored it. “I think Putin is afraid,” Ray suggested. “One of the justifications he gave for his war was to stop Ukraine from [potentially] bombing Moscow. It’s happening now as a direct consequence of his actions.”
Ray said he felt “revenge and justice” every time one of his drones ascended into the moonlit heavens, bound for enemy territory. “We didn’t start this war. We have no choice. We are fighting for our independence, for our people, for the memory of those who have died, and for our future. This is a contest between slaves and free people,” he said.
Secrecy surrounds Ukraine’s well-organised drone operation. An analytics department finds targets. Western partners provide some intelligence, but most is open source. Drone crews are given coordinates at the last minute. So far none of those who take part in launches have been injured or killed, despite attempts by Moscow to identify and blow up lift-off points.
One person involved said: “You are making change on a global scale. Trump wakes up and sees the results. At the same time it’s very solitary. You can’t tell anybody about what you do, even your wife, or boast: ‘Today we bombed Moscow.’ Only your commander understands.” They added: “It’s an important job. You feel the biggest satisfaction and a member of an elite.”
Kairos is a part of “Magyar’s Birds”, a brigade named after the call sign of its founder, Robert Brovdi, the head of Ukraine’s unmanned systems forces. In July Brovdi launched a campaign to destroy oil tankers and other vessels in the Sea of Azov and Black Sea. So far, more than ۲۰۰ have been hit. The Russians were taken unawares, their boats unable to escape.
Since last week the brigade has been burning warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s equivalent of Amazon, obliterating at least nine of them. Ukraine says the company sells military products. The strikes have crippled small businesses and caused billions of roubles in damage. “The socio-psychological impact on society is greater than that of an oil refinery,” Brovdi said.
He said Ukrainian long-range drones had “significantly thinned out” Russia’s air defences. “We have already destroyed the majority of them,” he said. “With every air defence unit destroyed, the breach expands.” Three days earlier air defence units were flattened in the Russian port of Yeysk on the Azov Sea, he added, bringing the number of systems knocked out to ۳۰۵.
Russia’s enormous size – once a strategic strength – has turned into a weakness. A panicked Kremlin has moved “a certain number” of air defences from the frontline to protect Moscow, Brovdi said. The commander said he wanted to stop Russia from using Crimea as a “springboard” to fire on Ukraine and to push out the nearly ۱ million Russian residents or “colonisers” who settled on the peninsula after Putin’s ۲۰۱۴ takeover.
Crimea now has so little fuel that Russian military groups are sometimes unable to fill up and launch drones. There are also frequent power cuts.
One brigade member, call sign Schweik, predicted food shortages would happen soon: “The operation is endless. There will be a cascade effect. We will continue this pressure. They will be thinking about survival instead of assault operations.”
Schweik added: “The situation is humiliating for Russia. Crimea is symbolic. It was Putin’s first trophy and the place where the world order was broken. He created a kind of euphoria in Russia society, which in turn gave him permission to go and take more [Ukrainian] territory. Now everyone in the world understands that Russia is really weak.”
Not all Ukrainian drones reach their targets. According to Ray, about a third are brought down over occupied territory. He admitted losses in the skies above Russia were considerably higher. Nevertheless, Ukraine’s strategy – to pile pressure on the Russian economy – appears to be working. “Troops and resources must be exhausted, so that it becomes impossible for them to continue the war,” Brovdi said.
The commander acknowledged that Russian troops were still advancing in the eastern Donbas region, with battles in the city of Kostiantynivka. “Their gains to date do not justify the price they’re paying for them,” he said. He continued: “At this rate, with their intention to seize half of Ukraine, are they planning to fight for ۱۰۰ years?”
Back in the countryside, Ray’s colleague “Panama” described the latest launch as a success. “It was ۱۰ out of ۱۰. With us it’s always like this,” he said, adding that he had been working with the current biplane-like model for a year and a half. “To begin with we used foreign drones. Sometimes things went wrong. Now we don’t have problems,” he reflected.
The only challenge came from the mosquitoes, which fill the air during summer evenings. “Over time we’ve become friends with them. They don’t annoy me any more. They are also inhabitants of free Ukraine. They can do whatever they want,” Panama said. “But if they irritate us we will launch them at the enemy. They can eat Russians.”
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Betrayal: Trump, Putin and The New Age of Conquest by Luke Harding is published on ۲۷ August by Guardian Faber. To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
