In the snow room streets of the northern Ukrainian city of Trostyanets, the Russian missile system fires missiles every second. Tanks and military vehicles are parked on either side of the explosive artillery system, located among houses and near the city’s railway system. However, the weapon does not work alone. Tens of meters above it, a Ukrainian drone hovers and records the attack. A drone is not a sophisticated military system, but a small commercial machine that anyone can buy.
Since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in late February, drones of all shapes and sizes have been used by both sides in the conflict. At one end of the scale are large military drones that can be used for aerial surveillance and attack targets on the ground. In contrast, small commercial drones can be operated by humans without any special training and carried in a suitcase-sized case. Although both types of drones have been used in previous conflicts, the current scale of use of small commercial drones in Ukraine is unprecedented.
Drone videos shared and posted on social media depict the brutality of the war and reveal what happened during the fighting. Drones have filmed fighting in destroyed Ukrainian city of Buchawith lines of tanks moving through the streets and troops moving past them. Commercial drones helped journalists document massive scale of destruction in Kyiv and Mariupolflying over burned buildings reduced to rubble.
The Russian soldiers were allegedly caught on camera shooting at citizens holding their hands in the air. Drone footage shows Ukrainian troops shelling Russian positions, tracking their movements in real time and ambush of Russian troops. In one video, a drone spots Russian military vehicles leaving troops behind – they run after the transport and fall into the snow. In another, the drone hovers in the air and records a creature from a helicopter shot down as he flies past.
“Drones changed the way warfare was supposed to be,” says Valery Yakovenko, founder of Ukrainian drone company DroneUA. “It’s all about reconnaissance, collecting and relaying data on enemy troop movements or positions, adjusting artillery fire. It is about counter-sabotage actions and of course search and rescue operations.” Yakovenko estimates that Ukrainian forces use more than 6,000 drones for reconnaissance and says they can connect to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite systems to upload footage. “In 2014 drones have become the focus of intelligence, but their scale cannot be compared to what we see today,” he says. (Russia first began its invasion of Ukraine in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea.)
Both Ukraine and Russia used military drones during the war – and Ukraine received donations of drones from the US. These military drones can often fly at high altitudes for long periods of time and shoot at targets, including ships. However, the use of smaller commercial drones in such large numbers stands out, the researchers said. These drones, which can sometimes be fragile and unable to fly far from their operators or remain airborne for long periods, have provided tactical advantages in some cases. (Commercial drones have been used in previous conflicts, such as in Syria, but not as widely as in Ukraine.)
