The Start of the Drone War

I remember when I saw my first hobbyist drone in Ukraine. I hadn’t seen one in real life before. A bearded, Caucasian-looking man by the call sign “Chechen,” who was with our parent unit–the Ukrainian Volunteer Army (UDA)—showed me the controller. The screen displayed a crisp live feed, and the joystick setup spoke fluently to my video game instincts. Suddenly, I felt above the mud-soaked infantry world I’d come from. With the drone, we could float above the tree line and look into enemy positions with a safety that felt both artificial and thrilling. The buzz of the rotors became synonymous with power.

Then came the footage.

In May 2022, near the village of Bilohorivka in Luhansk Oblast, a Russian battalion attempted a textbook pontoon river crossing over the

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