It was a Russian artillery battery positioned in a skinny slice of tree line. The drone operator, Leonid Slobodian, began counting out loud as he zoomed in and took screenshots of the findings. He noticed at the least 5 weapons, vans that in all probability carried ammunition inside and counterbattery radar. This was what the Ukrainian army calls a “fats” goal.
Beside him, Oleksandr Kapil fired off a voice message to the members of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade additionally watching a dwell stream of the drone digicam.
“We have to smash this from entrance to again,” Kapil stated into his telephone.
Then the expletive-ridden response: “Ship the entire footage and we’ll [mess] it up.”
Russian forces in Ukraine’s southern Kherson area are trying to carry the entrance line close to the city of Dudchany after a strategic retreat alongside the Western financial institution of the Dnieper River. Ukraine’s army, in the meantime, is making an attempt to take again much more floor earlier than reinforcements from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mobilization arrive.
The “Falcon” unit of the Kryvyi Rih Territorial Protection Forces on Thursday allowed Washington Submit journalists a uncommon take a look at a day of battle right here by the lens of their Ukrainian-made Leleka-100 drone, which seems like a small, grey aircraft. Moscow has extra weapons than Kyiv, so strikes on “fats” targets — armored autos, ammunition reserves and artillery — just like the one the Falcon unit recognized on Thursday is how Ukraine can weaken its enemy and advance.
Within the Kherson area, the place the terrain is flat with wide-open fields, hiding that kind of gear from reconnaissance drones is a problem for either side — one that can solely enhance because the leaves fall and winter arrives.
On Thursday, the Falcon unit was capable of see by the bushes. It positioned the Russian artillery battery, helped Ukraine’s personal artillery goal it, after which watched as elements of it had been destroyed.
“Our process is to find out what number of reserves are coming in, how sturdy these Russian fortifications now are, and to trace the entire army gear,” Kapil stated. “Then we convey all of that to artillery forces, they usually shell every part doable.”
Russian forces are actually massing close to the city of Mylove, Kapil stated, to defend their stronghold within the occupied city of Nova Kakhovka, on the other financial institution of the river. There, Moscow has seized a hydroelectric energy plant that controls a significant water provide to Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
The artillery battery the Falcon unit noticed was close to the neighboring village of Chervonyi Yar. A second drone flight confirmed the gear was nonetheless in place, and Slobodian handed alongside extra screenshots of the positioning, studying out its coordinates.
Neither he, Kapil, nor many of the remainder of their unit had any fight expertise earlier than Russia’s full-scale invasion. Slobodian and Garry Wagner, who operates the drone with him, had been cameramen for Ukrainian tv channels earlier than the battle.
After accumulating donations, Falcon’s commander, Oleh Lyadenko, in April bought the Leleka drone, which may fly about 25 miles and keep within the air for 2 hours earlier than it wants a battery change. Generally, the 128th brigade asks for Falcon to test sure places, or to observe a Russian column of tanks to see the place they go. Different occasions, the drone operators make their very own finds.
The current Russian retreat allowed the unit to maneuver ahead into not too long ago liberated villages and fly over territory beforehand out of their digicam’s vary.
On Thursday, they launched their drone from a trench line the Russians had used for themselves till this week. Whereas the drone was flying, among the troopers took cautious steps across the neighboring area, capturing at nonetheless unexploded mines.
Throughout one of many Leleka’s flights, they observed on the display a second, longer trench line close by. Two of the troopers went to discover it, returning with souvenirs — baseball caps with patches of the Russian flag and a “Z,” the image for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The retreating Russians left crates of pear juice behind, which the unit has been ingesting with smirks on their faces.
With the assistance of a Starlink satellite tv for pc web system, they labored from 8 a.m. till sundown. Round 2:45 p.m., they launched the drone for its penultimate flight of the day. Inside minutes, it noticed smoke on the horizon, close to the place they recognized the enemy artillery battery for the 128th brigade.
However because it acquired nearer, Slobodian realized it was a neighboring tree line. The Russians had tried to cover their gear there, too, and a special reconnaissance drone had noticed it. Ideally, that is the way it ought to work, Kapil stated — one drone following one other so protection isn’t misplaced and extra targets are marked. So long as one thing was burning, everybody within the unit was completely satisfied.
Falcon’s job now was to maintain its digicam skilled on the world and ensure that the U.S.-provided artillery was placing precisely as shells landed alongside the tree line. Troopers crowded across the pc display and cheered as they watched the explosions in actual time.
“A minimum of we now have one thing to be completely satisfied about at the moment,” Kapil stated in a voice be aware to his comrade within the 128th brigade.
“Grilled meat,” Slobodian deadpanned as one other explosion flashed throughout the display.
Then one strike hit a Russian Ural truck, creating an enormous mushroom cloud over the spot. It had been full of ammunition. The lads watching the display erupted, too. Now the enemy had fewer shells to assault with — and fewer weapons to fireplace them.
“That was a nuclear explosion,” Kapil exclaimed between laughs. “We’ve been preventing for some time now, however an explosion like that, I haven’t seen.”
Slobodian rubbed his fingers collectively. The “fats” place they found can be subsequent. Smoke rose over the bushes once more. A minimum of one of many Russian 152-mm weapons had been broken, they suspected. Their drone was operating out of battery energy and wanted to show again, however the day had been profitable.
By Friday, they’d moved on to new targets, recording overhead video of a Russian tank burning on the facet of a special area.
