Battle For Kherson The Drone Pilots Helping To Swing The War Kyiv's Way

With a deafening roar the rockets erupted from the launcher on the back of the Mitsubishi. The pickup truck was parked by a field of blackened sunflowers on territory seized back from Russian forces in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine just two weeks ago.

- Daniel Boffey

Barely 30 seconds later, the two 122mm missiles, skewering through the heavy grey sky, devastated a makeshift Russian headquarters that had been a base for about 100 soldiers in an abandoned school in the village of Dudchany, some five miles to the south-west.

Ukraine's forces now have every intention of taking Dudchany back in the coming weeks as they attempt to push west towards the city of Kherson, the eponymous regional capital and the first and only major city to fall to Russia following Vladimir Putin's invasion in February.

This is the frontline for Ukrainian forces in the Kherson oblast. In recent days, Sergey Surovikin, the newly appointed commander of Putin's forces, who made his reputation as "General Armageddon" in Syria, has admitted that there are "difficult decisions to make" in the region. The Russian appointed civil authorities have ordered an evacuation from the parts of Kherson city that lie north of the Dnieper River.

Ukrainian soldiers believe to a man that the momentum is with them. "We have a window," says Max, 38.