Petro Zadorozhny | Getty Images
In the snowy streets of the northern Ukrainian city of Trostyanets, the Russian missile system fires missiles every second. Tanks and military vehicles are parked on either side of the explosive artillery system, between houses and near the city’s rail system. However, the weapon does not work alone. Floats tens of meters above, registering the attack by a Ukrainian drone. The drone is not an advanced military system, but a small, commercial machine that anyone can buy.
Since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in late February, both sides to the conflict have used drones of all shapes and sizes. At one end of the shell are large military drones that can be used for aerial surveillance and attack targets on the ground. Small commercial drones, on the other hand, can be flown by people without specific training and carried around in a suitcase the size of a suitcase. While both types of drones have been used in previous conflicts, the current extent of small commercial drone use in Ukraine is unprecedented.
Drone videos shared and shared on social media show the brutality of the war and reveal what happened during the battles. Drones have captured battles in the destroyed Ukrainian city of Bucha, with rows of tanks moving through the streets and troops moving past them. Commercial drones have helped journalists document the huge scale of destruction in Kiev and Mariupolflying over burnt-out buildings reduced to rubble.
Russian troops reportedly caught on camera shooting civilians with their hands in the air† Drone videos show Ukrainian troops shelling Russian positions, tracking their movements in real time, and Ambushing Russian troops† In one video, a drone sees Russian military vehicles leaving troops behind – they run after the transport and fall in the snow† In another, the drone hovers in the air and records a helicopter creature shot as it flies by†
“Drones have changed the war,” said Valerii Iakovenko, the founder of Ukrainian drone company DroneUA. “It’s all about intelligence, collecting and transmitting data on the movements or positions of enemy forces, correcting artillery fire. These are counter-saboteurs, and they are, of course, search and rescue operations.” Iakovenko estimates that Ukrainian forces are using more than 6,000 drones for reconnaissance and says they could be linked to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite systems to upload images. “Drones became the focus of intelligence agencies’ attention in 2014, but their size is unlike anything we see today,” he says. (Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea.)
Both Ukraine and Russia have used military drones during the war – and Ukraine received donations of drones from the US. These military drones can often fly at high altitudes for long periods of time and shoot at targets, including ships. However, the use of smaller commercial drones in such high numbers is striking, researchers say. These drones, which can be flimsy at times and cannot fly far from their operators or stay in the air for a long time, have provided tactical advantages in some cases. (Commercial drones have been used in previous conflicts, for example in Syria, but not as extensively as in Ukraine.)
