The Times - UK (2022-03-18)

the times | Friday March 18 2022 5

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Natalia Horchuk, 25, a mother of three,

said that Russian soldiers appeared in

her garden in the village of Rakove

early on March 2. They told her and her

neighbours to leave and parked four

tanks and infantry fighting vehicles

between the houses.

“Do you have anywhere to go?” they

asked. “This place will be hit.” She

replied: “We can hide in the cellar.”

They told her: “The cellar won’t help

you.” She fled with her neighbours.

Outside Rakove, Volodymyr Kichuk,

a guard at a walnut plantation, woke to

find five Russian soldiers in his hut. His

wife Hanna said that they took his

phone and forced him to lie on the

ground. She said: “Once they realised

there was nothing to steal, they told

him: ‘You can get up after we leave.’ ”

The Russians moved downhill from

Rakove and opened fire on a Ukrainian

base. Mykola Rudenko, a territorial

defence officer, said that the soldiers in-

side had little chance. Some were killed,

others escaped.

The Russians were setting up two

mortars in a wheat field when the

Ukrainian shelling began.

Rudenko said that as darkness fell on

March 2, he took cover on the edge of

the field in the pouring rain. The

Russian tanks would fire into Voz-

nesensk and immediately drive away to

escape return fire, he said.

Rudenko was on the phone to an

artillery unit, sending in co-ordinates

to direct the fire on the Russians along

with other volunteers. “Everyone

helped,” he said. “Everyone shared the

information.”

The shelling blew craters in the field

and scored direct hits on some Russian

vehicles. Other Ukrainian soldiers

moved on foot towards the Russians,

hitting them with US Javelin missiles.

Soldiers abandoned their vehicles

and fled, leaving crates of ammunition.

Days later Rudenko picked up a Rus-

sian conscript, who served as an assist-

ant artillery specialist. The 18-year-old,

originally from eastern Ukraine and a

resident of Crimea since 2014, suffered

concussion after a shell landed near

him. Rudenko said that he left his weap-

on and wandered into a village, where a

woman took him to the local head.

“He’s still in shock,” Rudenko said.

Dombrovsky, the special forces com-

mander, said that he captured several

soldiers in their early twenties and a

31-year-old senior lieutenant from mili-

tary intelligence. The lieutenant had

forced a private to swap uniforms.

“The Russians had orders to come in,

seize and await further instructions,”

Dombrovsky said. “But they had no

orders for what to do if they were de-

feated. That, they didn’t plan for.”

Village homes this week still bore

traces of Russian soldiers. Cupboards

and closets had been looted. Russian

military rations and half-eaten jars of

pickles and preserves littered floors.

Spartak Hukasian, head of the Voz-

nesensk district council, said the city

was returning to peace. “He who laughs

last, laughs best,” he said. “We haven’t

had a chance to laugh until now.”

This is an edited extract of an article first

published in The Wall Street Journal.

BLACK

SEA

AZOV

SEA

UKRAINE

CRIMEA

Luhansk

Donetsk

Kyiv

Mariupol

RUSSIA

100 miles

USS

MOLMOLMOOLDOVDDODOVAAA

Odesa

Voznesensk

Lv iv

Kharkiv

Mykolaiv

Dnipro

Poltava

Konotop

Chernobyl

Zhytomyr

Direction of Russian

troop advance

Previous advance

Russian-held territory

Russian advances

Surrounded by

Russian troops

Vinnytsia

Delta, which identifies high-priority

targets for their limited supply of

bombs. Co-ordinates are given to the

kill squads who take to the skies at

night.

As well as utilising public communi-

cations channels used by hundreds of

civilian drone fliers who have mobilised

to push back President Putin’s forces,

Aerorozvidka relies on a secure Star-

link satellite system donated to them by

Elon Musk. The unit was created by

Behind the story

D

rone specialists have

built a Nato-standard

intelligence system

capable of monitoring

the movements of

Russians and co-ordinating

precise air attacks against their

positions (Charlie Parker writes).

Delta, created by the

Ukrainian air reconnaissance

unit Aerorozvidka, pulls together

information from satellites,

sensors on the battlefield, drone

reconnaissance, radio

interceptions and interviews with

people in occupied territory.

It allows on-screen tracking of

military movement in the

conflict zone, showing data on an

interactive map that military

leaders can use for “situational

awareness” and planning.

Leaders of the unit have been

using the system to co-ordinate

bombing runs with drones

against Russian targets,

including tank convoys.

“We have an in-house team of

military software developers who

follow a Nato standard to develop

our situational awareness

system,” an Aerorozvidka leader

told The Times. He added: “Based

on the information we task our

50 teams in the field to either hit

the targets identified or provide

additional reconnaissance to

some special parameters. Or to

provide artillery with their eyes

— they do the co-ordination of

artillery fire.”

Because of power cuts and

internet connection problems in

parts of Ukraine as a result of

Russian attacks, Aerorozvidka

has turned to alternative

methods.

Its most sophisticated drones

are connected using Starlink, a

system donated by Elon Musk

that uses satellites in a low orbit

to enable “high data rate”

activities. “We use Starlink

equipment and connect the

drone team with our artillery

team,” the officer said.

“If we use a drone with

thermal vision at night, the drone

must connect through Starlink to

the artillery guy and create

target acquisition.”

Delta proved so successful

against Russia in Crimea that

Ukrainian officers have been

trained by Nato to use it

alongside western-style

battlefield command and control

techniques. The system is helping

to transform how units detect

and respond to changes on the

battlefield.

picks off invading forces as they sleep

mercial drones to their most important

asset: heavy, custom-built octocopters

maintained by in-house engineers.

The R18 model is the jewel of their

arsenal, boasting a 4-kilometre range,

40-minute flight time and capacity to

drop 5kg bombs that obliterate Russian

armour. Considered the Ukrainians’

best device for night operations, it can

carry out precise reconnaissance,

direct artillery fire and drop explosives

on tanks and electronic warfare trucks.

Another drone used by the unit is the

PD-1, a reconnaissance device capable

of hovering in the air for eight hours.

The teams carry out about 300 mis-

sions every day to help to collect infor-

mation by Aerorozvidka’s advanced

Nato-supported intelligence system,

model plane enthusiasts in 2014, but

since the success of its operations

against Russian forces in Crimea, it has

been integrated into the Ukrainian

general staff.

Many devices return to Aeroroz-

vidka’s base battle scarred from Russian

rifles and the unit is in urgent need of

parts, especially night vision and

thermal cameras.

Over the past fortnight supporters

from across Europe have been sending

drone parts and other equipment,

including 3D printers that can be used

to build explosive devices and repair

damaged devices.

British citizens have responded to the

call and are in the process of creating a

direct supply stream to Ukraine.

Aerorozvidka,

led by Yaroslav

Honchar, right,

use drones to hit

targets at night

column after they destroyed Russian supply trucks, above. It wrote the tanks were: “Cast-iron vessels for preserving dead Russians... we will have to remove this scrap”