Ill-equipped and tired: a night with a Ukrainian air defence unit

National Post

3 days ago

A menacing buzz reverberates through the night sky in eastern Ukraine. Explosions ring out, flashes illuminate sunflower fields below and the smell of gunpowder poisons the air.
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'There! Three kilometres away!' shouted one Ukrainian serviceman in the air defence unit equipped with Soviet-era weapons and tasked with intercepting Russian drones, before they home in on Ukrainian towns and cities.
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The long-range unmanned aerial vehicles originally designed by Iran but improved and launched by Moscow have been devastating Ukraine since the early chapters of the Kremlin's invasion launched in early 2022.
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Moscow has trumpeted its industrial-scale production of the cheap weapons, with state-television broadcasting what it called the world's largest drone factory.
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The rare footage showed the assembly of hundreds of jet-black triangle-shaped Gerans — geraniums in Russian.
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On the night in July that AFP embedded with an air defence unit in Ukraine's eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Russia launched 344 drones, but its largest-ever barrage comprised of more than 700.
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'It's rotten tonight, just like the day before,' said one serviceman in the air defence unit, leaning over a radar.
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Increasingly sophisticated Gerans are flying at higher altitudes and able to alter course en route, but Vasyl's unit is equipped with old, short-range weapons.
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'They fly chaotically and unpredictably. It has become harder to destroy them,' the 49-year-old told AFP.
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'We're effective, but I can't promise that it will be like this every week,' he adde'Nothing we can do'
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Oleksandr, a fellow serviceman defending airspace near Pavlograd city, was scrutinising a radar where hundreds of red dots were appearing.
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'There's nothing we can do. It's not our area,' he said of the incoming drones.
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His 20-year-old daughter, who lives in Pavlograd, was not answering her phone, he told AFP while lighting a cigarette.
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'But I warned her,' added Oleksandr, who like others in this story identified himself with his first name or army nickname in line with military protocol.