A few days ago, a week after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, a 60 km long column of Russian tanks and military vehicles was on its way to Kyiv. Then, in a short time, the column dissolved. The offensive failed. However, until now, none of the authors were aware of this error. Thirty young Ukrainian computer scientists on quads, armed with sophisticated drones, practically halted the convoy’s advance on their own. The Guardian reveals it.
The computer scientists come from an air reconnaissance unit, Aerorozvidka, formed eight years ago during the first Russian invasion of Ukraine, which occupied Crimea and part of the Donbass. At that time it was already a group of computer specialists and volunteers with knowledge of military technology who designed their own military tools themselves. In the current war, the group has been forced to gather through web crowdfunding components such as advanced modems and thermal imaging cameras that they needed to develop their attack technology. Due to export controls, it is not possible to ship certain sensitive and hazardous materials to Ukraine. The unit’s commander, Lt. Col. Yaroslav Honchar, shared with the Guardian the details of the ambush carried out by the group near the town of Ivankiv. Ambush that helped stop the Russian offensive. Honchar stated that “the Ukrainian fighters on quads were able to close in on the Russian column, which was advancing at night, crossing the forest on the road south from Chernobyl to Kyiv and surprising the enemy with sudden ambushes”. Ukrainian soldiers were equipped with night vision goggles, sniper rifles, remotedetonated mines and drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras that could drop small 1.5 kg bombs. “This small unit destroyed two or three vehicles at the head of the convoy the first night, which later got stuck. The group stayed there for two more nights, destroying as many other vehicles,” Honchar said.
At this point, the column of Russian tanks decided to split into smaller units to try to advance towards the capital, but here too the Ukrainian computer scientists intervened, organizing an attack on the convoy’s supply depot and the Russians’ ability to advance paralyzed. “The first echelon of the Russian armed forces was stuck with no heating, no oil, no bombs and no gas. And it all happened thanks to the work of 30 people, Honchar commented. The Aerorozvidka unit also said it helped repel a Russian airstrike on Hostomel Airport northwest of Kyiv on the first day of the war, using drones to locate, target and bomb around 200 paratroopers. “This helped discourage them from using this airport to advance their attack,” said Lieutenant Taras, one of Honchar’s aides.
The British newspaper notes that not all details of the lieutenant colonel’s report have been independently verified. However, some Pentagon sources confirmed to the Guardian that the Ukrainian attacks helped stop the convoy near Ivankiv. Other information from other international newspapers pointed to drone strikes as one of the main reasons that forced Russia to halt its march on Kyiv.
The special team of quad bikers was created by some Ukrainian university students who took part in the Maidan uprising in 2014 and then volunteered to use their technical knowledge in the resistance in Donbass and Crimea. The group’s founder was Volodomyr KochetkovSukach, an investment banker who was killed in combat in Donbass the following year. Honchar, on the other hand, is a former soldier who went on to become an information technology consultant and rejoined the army after the invasion eight years ago. Taras is a crowdfunding executive who only joined the unit fulltime last February. Within the group there are also software programmers, IT engineers and drone enthusiasts. There are also women in the group, such as Marina Borozna, a former economics student and fellow student of Taras. Marina’s fiancé Klaus Hentrich, a molecular biology student at Cambridge, helps the team due to his experience in the German military. Initially, the unit used commercial surveillance drones, but later the team developed their own designs. They managed to build spy drones, large 5foot, eightrotor machines capable of dropping rocketpropelled bombs and antitank grenades, and created a system called Delta, a network of sensors that powered a digital map so commanders could use it could see the movements of the enemy. Now Aerorozvidka is using the Starlink satellite system supplied by Elon Musk to provide realtime data to Ukrainian artillery units so they can target Russian targets. It’s the Ukrainian resistance David vs. Goliath and it seems to be working.
The unit was disbanded in 2019 by the then defense minister, but was hastily reformed in October last year when the threat of a Russian invasion loomed. It’s a technological battle, and Honchar describes her role as similar to that of the bees. “Swarms of small teams linked by a web of mutual trust and advanced communications can overwhelm a larger, much more heavily armed opponent.” “We’re like a beehive,” he said. “One bee is nothing, but when you face a thousand it can defeat a large force. We’re like bees, but we work nights,” he concluded.