From the game console to the front line As drone pilots, gamers are Kiev's deadliest fighting force

Drone pilots are extremely effective at tracking down and killing Russian soldiers. The members of the drone units fight against the Russian invaders with a start-up and gamer attitude.

He has often been told by his mother that he shouldn't spend so much time playing computer games, says Dachno. Now he fights Russian soldiers on screen. He recently flew a drone with a 4.5-kilogram bomb into a school building where Russian soldiers were seeking shelter. "The school no longer exists. My childhood dream has come true," he acknowledges the action in the Wall Street Journal.

Macabre remarks are apparently part of the game when Ukrainian drone pilots hunt down and eliminate Russian fighters. The "Wall Street Journal" reproduces several of them when reporting on various drone units of the Ukrainian armed forces.

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This could be their way of dealing with what they experience on screen during their war missions. For although the pilots are at a safe distance from the front, they see the consequences of close combat closer than most. Bodies torn apart by explosions and people bleeding to death are captured by the detection drones. They accompany the aircraft carrying the bomb, which in most cases explodes with it.

From private reconnaissance to official frontline missions

At the beginning of the Russian invasion and the march on Kiev in February 2022, Ukrainians used drones to conduct private reconnaissance for the Ukrainian army. Heorhie Volkov belongs to a drone battalion that has been active since that time. Unpaid and civilian, they tracked the movements of Russian troops in the first weeks of the war.

Then they started producing plastic holders for small bombs using 3D printers, says the 37-year-old, who owns a marketing agency in civilian life. In 2023, he officially became part of the armed forces, in a drone battalion called Jasni Odschi - clear eyes.

Meanwhile, the small explosive flying devices come directly from Ukrainian factories, several tens of thousands per month according to the Wall Street Journal. The small and maneuverable FPV (first-person view) drones in particular are being used. In countries where there is no war, this type of drone is used in drone races, for example.

Measuring 17 to 25 centimetres, they can carry bombs weighing up to 4.5 kilograms and fly up to 18 kilometers. One costs 500 dollars in Ukraine. Without a bomb.

Start-up Groove on the front line

One member of a drone association was a restaurant manager before the war, another was a music producer and another ran a co-working space. These civilian backgrounds are an indication of the western-oriented, urban Ukraine that Putin's troops have been working to destroy for two and a half years.

Moscow is now sending out more drones than Ukraine, but has fewer experienced pilots at its disposal than Kiev, writes the Wall Street Journal.

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The rooms in which the drone pilots sit and carry out their deadly work are described as resembling messy start-ups rather than army command centers. The men at the controls would also pay little attention to military customs. The majority of drone fighters join the troops without any military experience.

Drones slow down Russian advance

This is in sharp contrast to their contribution to the defense campaign against the Russian army. Pilot Dachno has killed over 300 Russian soldiers so far. That is more than twice as many as the most successful US sniper has eliminated in Iraq, writes the Wall Street Journal.

The Ukrainian drones are responsible for the fact that there are hardly any safe places for advancing soldiers between the front lines. The drone units are also slowing down the Russian advance. The enormous Russian losses are allegedly largely due to the unmanned aerial vehicles.

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Russia is no longer making such good progress with armored columns and is therefore often sending small infantry units into the no-man's land between the front lines. For the drone pilots, this means that they are taking aim at more individual targets. He now has 40 drones with him every day instead of 20 as before, explains drone pilot Farmer. His war machines are equipped with shrapnel to kill infantry soldiers instead of high-explosive explosives to destroy armored vehicles.

Merciless - almost always

Once soldiers have noticed the drone chasing them, they first try to escape, then they try to shoot the drone down or throw something at it. Eventually they give up, some beg for mercy. In rare cases, the drone pilot succeeds in persuading a Russian fighter to surrender.

Dachno emphasizes that he also kills Russians who beg for mercy. "Even if they pray, beg or swear that they won't do it again. I'm sure the mothers of Ukrainian children cried too."