Ukraine Drone Operators Turning The Tide Of War Have Bounties On Their Heads

Kim Sengupta speaks to the volunteers targeted by Russia

- Kim Sengupta

The hasty arrival of Russian armour and artillery was an indication of how the tide of war is changing. This was not an army on the offensive but in retreat from the sweeping counteroffensive in which Ukrainian forces have broken through enemy lines in the northeast of the country.

Yevhen Pronin watched the regrouping in the Donbas through the lens of his drones - the unmanned aircraft which played a vital part in the Ukrainian counterattack and in the overall conflict, from fighting off the Kremlin's assault on Kyiv in the first days of the invasion to the recent recapture of Izyum and other strategic locations. Such has been the level of damage inflicted by Ukraine's drone teams that the Russians have offered bounties on their heads. Yevhen and his team have been among those warned by intelligence that they have been targeted.

It is an occupational hazard, says the 31-year-old, who put his career as a successful lawyer on hold to fight for his country and knew full well the risks involved on the frontline. The imperative now is to focus on the Russian weaknesses and exploit these and continue to hurt them. "The Russians seem to have learned their lessons a bit," he says. "It was interesting watching the way they formed up when regrouping. It was very cautious, one line of DNR and LNR [the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk republics] and then the Russian units behind.

"The DNR and LNR guys were the pawns as usual, they would be the sacrifice, the first to get hit; they had the worst kit as usual. But the Russian stuff was also pretty old, Soviet era, they have lost a lot of the more modern kit in Izyum and other places; that's good news."