A week after invading Ukraine, Russia assembled a 40-mile mechanized column to launch an overwhelming attack on Kyiv from the north.
But the convoy of armored vehicles and supply trucks stalled within days, and the offensive faltered, in large part due to a series of nighttime ambushes carried out by a team of 30 Ukrainian special forces and drone operators on quads a Ukrainian commander .
The drone operators hail from an aerial reconnaissance unit called Aerorozvidka, which began eight years ago as a group of volunteer IT specialists and hobbyists who developed their own machines and has become an essential element in Ukraine’s successful David and Goliath resistance.
However, while Ukraine’s Western backers have shipped thousands of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles and other military equipment, Aerorozvidka has been forced to resort to crowdfunding and a network of personal contacts to keep going, supplying components such as advanced modems and thermal imaging cameras in the face of export controls that prohibit their shipment to Ukraine.
The unit’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel Yaroslav Honchar, reported on the ambush near the town of Ivankiv, which helped stem the huge, lumbering Russian offensive. He said the Ukrainian fighters on quad bikes could approach the advancing Russian column at night, riding through the forest on either side of the road leading south to Kyiv from the Chernobyl direction.
The Ukrainian soldiers were equipped with night vision goggles, sniper rifles, remote-controlled mines, drones with thermal imaging cameras and other devices capable of dropping small 1.5 kg bombs.
“This one small unit destroyed two or three vehicles at the head of this convoy during the night and after that he got stuck. They stayed there two more nights and [destroyed] many vehicles,” said Honchar.
A drone is assembled by the Aerorozvidka unit. Photo: AerorozvidkaThe Russians broke the column into smaller units to try to advance towards the Ukrainian capital, but the same assault team was able to launch an attack on their supply depot, he claimed, crippling the Russians’ ability to advance.
“The first echelon of Russian forces was stuck with no heat, no oil, no bombs and no gas. And it all happened because of the work of 30 people,” Honchar said.
The Aerorozvidka unit also claims to have helped repel a Russian airstrike on Hostomel Airport northwest of Kyiv on the first day of the war, using drones to locate, target and fire on about 200 Russian paratroopers who were at one end of the war were hidden airfield.
“This was a major factor in their inability to use this airfield to further develop their attack,” said Lt. Taras, one of Honchar’s aides.
Not all of the details of these claims have been independently verified, but US defense officials said Ukrainian attacks helped delay the armored column around Ivankiv. The vast amount of aerial combat footage released by the Ukrainians underscores the importance of drones to their resistance.
The unit was formed by young university-educated Ukrainians who took part in the 2014 Maidan uprising and volunteered to use their technical skills to resist the first Russian invasion of Crimea and Donbass. Its founder, Volodymyr Kochetkov-Sukach, was an investment banker who was killed in Donbass in 2015 – a reminder of the high risks involved. The Russians can hook up to the drone’s electronic signature and quickly strike with mortars, requiring Aerorozvidka teams to take off and run.
Honchar is a former soldier turned IT marketing consultant who returned to the army after the first Russian invasion. Taras, who asked not to use his last name, was a management consultant specializing in fundraising for the unit and only started full-time as a combatant in February.
In its early days, the unit used commercial surveillance drones, but its team of engineers, software designers, and drone enthusiasts later developed their own designs.
They built a series of surveillance drones, as well as large 1.5-metre, eight-rotor machines capable of dropping bombs and rocket-propelled anti-tank grenades, and created a system called Delta, a network of sensors along the front lines that fed into a digital map, so commanders could see enemy movement as it passed. It now uses the Starlink satellite system supplied by Elon Musk to provide Ukrainian artillery units with live data so they can lock on Russian targets.
The unit was disbanded in 2019 by the then defense minister but was hastily revived last October amid the threat of a Russian invasion.
The ability to observe Russian movements from the air was critical to the success of Ukrainian guerrilla-style tactics. But Aerorozvidka’s efforts to expand and replace lost equipment have been hampered by a limited supply of drones and components, and efforts to secure them through MoD procurements have yielded little, partly because they have been newly recruited into the armed forces and still viewed as an outsider.
Additionally, some of the advanced modems and thermal imaging cameras made in the US and Canada are subject to export controls, so they resort to crowdfunding, asking a global network of friends and supporters to find them on eBay or other sites.
Marina Borozna, who studied economics at university with Taras, is looking for ways to buy what the unit needs and finding ways to get the supplies across the border.
“I know there are people who want to help them fight, people who want to do a little bit more than just humanitarian aid,” Borozna said. “If you want to address the root cause of this human suffering, you must defeat the Russian invasion. Aerorozvidka makes a big difference and they need our support.”
Her partner Klaus Hentrich, a molecular biologist in Cambridge, also helps with his experience as a conscript in the German armed forces.
“I was in an artillery reconnaissance unit myself, so I immediately realized what an outsize effect Aerorozvidka has. They effectively give their artillery eyes,” Hentrich said. “Where we can make a difference is by raising international support, whether it’s financial contributions, help sourcing harder-to-find technical components, or donations of ordinary civilian drones.”
The unit is also looking at ways to overcome Russian interference, which is part of the electronic warfare being waged in Ukraine alongside the bombs, grenades and missiles. Currently, Aerorozvidka usually waits for the Russians to turn off their jamming equipment to launch their own drones, and then sends their machines up at the same time. The unit then focuses its firepower on the electronic warfare vehicles.
Honchar describes these technological battles and Aerorozvidka’s style of fighting as the future of warfare, where swarms of small teams, linked through mutual trust and advanced communications, can overwhelm a larger and more heavily armed opponent.
“We’re like a swarm of bees,” he says. “One bee is nothing, but when faced with a thousand, it can defeat a great force. We are like bees, but we work at night.”