Russia attacks Ukraine almost every day with hundreds of drones, and not all of them can be intercepted by missiles. That's why Ukrainian soldiers have to find other ways to defend themselves.
Some of them use propeller-driven aircraft designed to train pilots. And that's not at all safe: during a flight, a soldier opens the cockpit hatch and fires an automatic weapon at drones from a distance of several hundred meters from them.
At the beginning of the war, Russian "Shahed" unmanned aerial vehicles could be shot down with machine guns from the ground. But newer models fly faster and higher.
They rely on their eyes and reflexes
"We approach the drones at about 150 to 200 meters. If we get too close, the blast wave will hit us. From about 500 meters we can also aim at the explosives. But it's best to shoot at the engine," a Ukrainian serviceman, whom we called Serhiy, tells DW. He recently shot down three Russian "Shahed" in half an hour.
According to him, shooting down the drones is not such a problem - the harder part of the task is detecting them. The radars are too heavy to be mounted on small planes. That's why the soldiers rely on information from the ground and their eyes. "We find them easiest when we fly over them. "To take them down, we go down and shoot them from below," Serhiy explains.
But the gunner's visibility is limited, especially in heavy rain. And at night, these planes cannot be used for this purpose. However, the cold is not a problem: "I flew in the winter at minus 24 degrees Celsius. It was even colder in the air, but you don't even have time to feel the cold," says the Ukrainian soldier.
"Five bullets and the drone disappeared"
The disadvantages of these planes are compensated by the price. The unit commander, whom we will call Taras here, says that older Yak-52s in Europe cost about fifty thousand euros. This is less than the estimated cost of a single "Shahed" drone.
How much more profitable it is to use these aircraft in the fight against Russian drones becomes even clearer from another example - NATO recently used missiles worth millions of euros to shoot down several drones of the same type in Polish airspace.
"One of our teams recently destroyed a "Shahed" with just five shots. Five shots and the drone was gone," says Serhiy in this regard.
Conditions and attacks change daily
Currently, Russia launches over 500 "Shahed" drones per day, to which are added reconnaissance drones that guide the missile attacks. Ukraine simply cannot afford to fight them with expensive missiles. F-16 fighter jets could be used for this purpose. But turboprop aircraft are more suitable and cheaper in this case.
Meanwhile, Russian drones can now change direction, swerve and dive, and avoid threats. Fighting them is becoming increasingly difficult. "Sometimes it takes 40 minutes to catch them. The teams come back drenched in sweat and exhausted", says Commander Taras.
But as often happens in this war: as soon as one side finds a solution to counter a technology, the other reacts and invents something else.
Any failure can cost lives
One example: Newer Russian drones are equipped with additional cameras to detect Ukrainian aircraft or drones that are stalking them. The drone pilot or the AI can decide how to best evade the pursuers.
Flying such a light aircraft does not require much physical effort. But the responsibility of the task is quite a burden: if you drop the drone and it hits its target, it can also mean the death of innocent people.
Often the very bases where these aircraft are deployed and their crews are the targets of Russian drones. And while Western-supplied F-16s are a more desirable target for Russian attacks, Ukrainian turboprop aircraft are also increasingly being attacked by Russian forces.
Author: Nick Connolly