Ukrainian soldiers operate UAVs on the front line (Photo: Reuters).
As a Ukrainian rocket flew toward a Russian radar system, soldiers in Kiev's UAV unit held their breath in anticipation.
“There’s still about a minute left,” said Soliara, 46, the drone operator, before silence fell over their control vehicle, which was packed with screens and cables and hidden behind a fence in the northwestern Kharkiv region.
Mr. Soliara's unit belongs to the 15th Independent Artillery Reconnaissance Brigade. They are tasked with operating the "Shark," a Ukrainian-made drone with advanced technology that includes a camera that can sometimes read letters on clothing from 2km above the ground.
The Shark is a weapon in a domestic drone program that Ukraine has been developing since Russia launched its military campaign in its neighbor.
After the servicemen reconnected with the Shark, they saw a smoke-filled crater 50 meters away from the Russian radar system. Meanwhile, the Moscow hardware accelerated to move to safety.
According to Reuters , the attack and interception are part of a complex "cat and mouse" game that Russia and Ukraine are conducting along a front line of more than 1,000km.
Each side will continuously launch new UAVs to the front line, implementing new attack tactics, and the other side will study how to counter, intercept, and create a situation of mutual pursuit. This process is continuous because UAVs are considered the most important weapon in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Russia has its own massive fleet of UAVs, as well as sophisticated EW systems that can disrupt the signals of remotely piloted drones and cause guided munitions to go astray.
“They added EW systems operating on other frequencies, they learned to hide precisely, they moved air defense complexes to new locations,” said Mr. Soliara.
Close-up of a Ukrainian Shark UAV (Photo: Reuters).
However, according to Ukrainian soldiers, Shark had previously been a powerful assistant helping Kiev destroy many valuable Russian targets such as air defense complexes and radar systems.
“About a month after I joined the force, we found an air defense system, attacked it,” said Kenobi, a Ukrainian soldier. He described the Russian shield as firing like fireworks after being attacked.
Ukraine uses a range of drones from domestic manufacturers as well as Western suppliers, to locate Russian targets and attack them directly.
Military personnel say Ukrainian-made drones are often easier to repair if damaged because they can be quickly sent back to the manufacturer.
The commander of Ukraine's 15th brigade, Oleksandr Popov, said drones are playing an important role on the battlefield.
“We calculated that one flight of the Shark UAV would be worth the value of that weapon, because it could destroy a high-tech weapon system worth millions of dollars,” he said, adding that the Shark costs about $50,000.
Shark aerial reconnaissance was invaluable on the battlefield, where artillery played an overwhelmingly important role as each side fired thousands of shells every day.
"Artillery is the king of the battlefield and artillery scouts are the eyes of the king of the battlefield," said soldier Soliara.
On the other hand, The Economist said, Russia is also stepping up efforts to hunt down enemy UAV operators to cause irreparable damage to Ukraine.
Hummer, commander of Ukraine's 47th Mechanized Brigade operating along the Zaporizhia front, told The Economist that Russia would fire with all the firepower it had at its disposal once it identified enemy targets.
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