Sergeant Yegor Firsov, the Ukrainian deputy commander of a detachment of strike drone operators, commented on the situation on the front in a voice message sent to "Politiko" from Avdiivka, an industrial city at the center of intense fighting on the eastern front.
Russian troops have been relentlessly storming Avdiivka for more than two weeks in a full-scale effort to encircle Ukrainian forces there.
"The situation is very difficult. We are fighting for the heights around the city," Firsov said. "If the enemy controls these heights, then all the logistics and roads leading to the city will be under his control. This will make it much harder to supply our forces.”
Faced with an enemy with superior numbers of troops and equipment, Ukrainian defenders are holding their own with the help of small drones piloted by operators like Firsov, which for a few hundred dollars can deliver an explosive charge capable of destroying a Russian tank worth more than $2 million.
FPV — or — First-person-view; drones used in such strikes are equipped with a built-in camera that allows skilled operators like Firsov to direct them to their target with extreme precision.
FPV drones are being used as flexible weapons that can transform battlefield outcomes. Others are watching and learning from technology that gives Ukrainians an asymmetric advantage over established methods of warfare.
"It is difficult to cope with the emotion when a drone pilot hits a tank. The whole group and the whole platoon are happy like babies. Nearby, infantry units are cheering. Everyone is screaming and hugging. Even though they don't know the person who brought them this happiness," Firsov wrote in a Facebook post.
A typical FPV drone weighs up to one kilogram, has four small motors, a battery, a frame and a camera connected wirelessly to goggles worn by a pilot who controls it remotely. It can carry up to 2.5 kilograms of explosives and hit targets at speeds of up to 150 kilometers per hour, explains Pavlo Tsybenko, acting director of the military academy "Dronarium" near Kiev.
"This drone costs up to $400 and can be made anywhere. We made ours using microchips imported from China and parts we bought from AliExpress. We made the carbon frame ourselves. And yes, the batteries are from Tesla. A car has about 1,100 batteries that can be used to power these little guys," Tsybenko told "Politico" during a recent visit, showing off the custom-made FPV drones used by the academy to train future drone pilots.
"It is almost impossible to take it down," he said. "Only a network can help. And I predict that soon we will have to put such networks over our cities or at least over government buildings all over Europe.
Commercial drones were first put into service in Azerbaijan — ultimately successful — campaign to retake the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenian separatists. Their use has expanded rapidly in Russia's 20-month war in Ukraine.
And earlier this month, Hamas militants mobilized such drones to overwhelm their attack and confuse Israel's air defenses during a surprise attack that killed more than 1,400 people and took about 200 hostages.
Ukrainian drone experts and intelligence officials are convinced that Russian specialists have trained Hamas in the art of drone warfare - although Moscow denies this.
"Only we and the Russians know how to do this - and we certainly didn't teach them," Andriy Chernyak, a representative of the Directorate of Military Intelligence of Ukraine.
Ruslan Belyaev, head of the military academy "Dronarium", shares this opinion. He warns that other militants will soon learn how to use FPV drones to sow terror.
"No one is immune from such attacks," Belyaev said. "In theory, a specialist with my level of experience could plan and execute an operation to eliminate high-ranking officials in any European country... Pandora's box is open."
While NATO militaries are hesitant to use commercial drones, which are mostly made in China or made from Chinese components, some Western democracies have already shown interest in learning from Ukraine's experience in drone warfare.
"FPV drones are effective tools for destroying the enemy and protecting our country. The Defense Ministry is doing everything possible to increase the number of drones," Umerov said in a statement on Wednesday.
Each FPV drone pilot works in tandem with aerial reconnaissance units, or another type of drone with video and audio transmitters, to monitor their mission. "The FPV loses its video signal close to the target. So the other drone helps the pilot and the support units understand that the target has indeed been hit," Tsybenko said.
Firsov confirmed this in a Facebook post from the front. What looks simple on video actually requires close coordination between dozens of people.
"Everything looks so simple, put on the goggles - and "Bam!" you destroyed a tank," Firsov said. "In fact, aerial reconnaissance spends hours searching for targets. A decoder scans the video and detects targets that the enemy has carefully hidden. A navigator, who is nearby, helps the pilot fly the route. Engineer and sapper who lay explosives and much, much more.”
Most FPV drones are kamikaze-type, Tsybenko said. And their effectiveness has changed the game. The Russians, who initially lagged behind Ukraine in mastering drone warfare, have learned from their mistakes. And now they are expanding Ukraine’s drone warfare methods.
Russian forces already have "countless" FPV drones, which they now use to target individual soldiers.
Russia has also launched its own production lines and is devising new tactics for deploying drones in swarms.
But neither Ukraine nor Russia is capable of producing drones for combat operations themselves. They still source critical parts from China, the leading producer of commercial drones. Earlier this year, China's Ministry of Commerce imposed restrictions on the export of drone parts and equipment to Ukraine and Russia for "fear that they will be used for military purposes."
Since Russia is an ally of China, the Ukrainian military's preference for Chinese technology has raised concerns among Kiev's Western partners. They fear that Beijing could hand over sensitive military data to Moscow.
"Every lock has a key. Indeed, the commercial drones that we buy in stores synchronize their data with a server. But we learned how to create user logins that are completely anonymous. Even the drone can think that it is flying somewhere in Canada, and not in the Donbass," Tsybenko said.
"When we talked to Europeans, they were amazed at how easy it is to hack and anonymize Chinese drones. "It is safe to use them, we tried to convince our partners," Tsybenko said, adding that Ukraine did not have the luxury of time to independently develop and certify its own drones.