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 a minimum of 5 weapons, vans that in all probability carried ammunition inside and counterbattery radar. This was what the Ukrainian army calls a “fat” goal.
Beside him, Oleksandr Kapli fired off a voice message to the members of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade additionally watching a dwell stream of the drone digital camera.
“We need to smash this from front to back,” Kapli mentioned into his telephone.
Then the expletive-ridden response: “Send all of the 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 Defense Forces on Thursday allowed Washington Post journalists a uncommon have a look at a day of battle right here by means of the lens of their Ukrainian-made Leleka-100 drone, which appears to be like like a small, grey airplane. Moscow has extra weapons than Kyiv, so strikes on “fat” targets — armored automobiles, ammunition reserves and artillery — just like the one the Falcon unit recognized on Thursday is how Ukraine can weaken its enemy and advance.
In the Kherson area, the place the terrain is flat with wide-open fields, hiding that form of tools from reconnaissance drones is a problem for all sides — one that can solely enhance because the leaves fall and winter arrives.
On Thursday, the Falcon unit was in a position to see by means of the bushes. It positioned the Russian artillery battery, helped Ukraine’s personal artillery goal it, after which watched as components of it have been destroyed.
“Our task is to determine how many reserves are coming in, how strong these Russian fortifications now are, and to track all of the military equipment,” Kapli mentioned. “Then we convey all of that to artillery forces, and they shell everything possible.”
Russian forces are actually massing close to the city of Mylove, Kapli mentioned, to defend their stronghold in the occupied city of Nova Kakhovka, on the other financial institution of the river. There, Moscow has seized a hydroelectric energy plant that controls an important 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 tools was nonetheless in place, and Slobodian handed alongside extra screenshots of the location, studying out its coordinates.
Neither he, Kapli, nor a lot 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, have been cameramen for Ukrainian tv channels earlier than the conflict.
After gathering donations, Falcon’s commander, Oleh Lyadenko, in April bought the Leleka drone, which might fly about 25 miles and keep in the air for 2 hours earlier than it wants a battery change. Sometimes, the 128th brigade asks for Falcon to test sure areas, or to comply with a Russian column of tanks to see the place they go. Other instances, the drone operators make their very own finds.
The latest Russian retreat allowed the unit to maneuver ahead into just lately liberated villages and fly over territory beforehand out of their digital camera’s vary.
On Thursday, they launched their drone from a trench line the Russians had used for themselves till this week. While the drone was flying, among the troopers took cautious steps across the neighboring discipline, capturing at nonetheless unexploded mines.
During one of many Leleka’s flights, they observed on the display screen 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 consuming 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. Around 2:45 p.m., they launched the drone for its penultimate flight of the day. Within minutes, it noticed smoke on the horizon, close to the place they recognized the enemy artillery battery for the 128th brigade.
But because it obtained nearer, Slobodian realized it was a neighboring tree line. The Russians had tried to cover their tools there, too, and a special reconnaissance drone had noticed it. Ideally, that is the way it ought to work, Kapli mentioned — one drone following one other so protection is rarely misplaced and extra targets are marked. As lengthy as one thing was burning, everybody in the unit was pleased.
Falcon’s job now was to maintain its digital camera educated on the world and ensure that the U.S.-provided artillery was placing precisely as shells landed alongside the tree line. Soldiers crowded across the laptop display screen and cheered as they watched the explosions in actual time.
“At least we have something to be happy about today,” Kapli mentioned in a voice observe to his comrade in the 128th brigade.
“Grilled meat,” Slobodian deadpanned as one other explosion flashed throughout the display screen.
Then one strike hit a Russian Ural truck, creating an enormous mushroom cloud over the spot. It had been stuffed with ammunition. The males watching the display screen erupted, too. Now the enemy had fewer shells to assault with — and fewer weapons to fireside them.
“That was a nuclear explosion,” Kapli exclaimed between laughs. “We’ve been fighting for a while now, but an explosion like that, I haven’t seen.”
Slobodian rubbed his palms collectively. The “fat” place they found can be subsequent. Smoke rose over the bushes once more. At least one of many Russian 152-mm weapons have 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, that they had moved on to new targets, recording overhead video of a Russian tank burning on the facet of a special discipline.