Electronic components, laptops, documents spread out on two tables in a dimly lit room… This is where these young Ukrainian workers, whose average age does not exceed 25, work.
In another room, the house’s former laundry room, drones are repaired using spare parts taken from other aircraft damaged “in battle” against the Russians.
Outside, in the background, artillery fire from the nearby front.
And in a shed at the bottom of the garden, a 19-year-old, whose nom de guerre is “Varnak”, transforms grenades designed for grenade launchers into bombs to be dropped from drones.
Just add fins to them and change the detonation system, he says, smiling.
“I manage explosives here in my section (…) We work on grenades and we create homemade explosive objects”, says the young man, who joined this section after responding to an announcement on Twitter .
On the small bombs, Varnak inscribed personalized messages for the Russian enemy: “Victory, and happy birthday!” or “Those who live without freedom have bad taste”.
In the garage of the house, a platform stuffed with electronics is mounted on four wheels: the team is putting the finishing touches to the preparation of a kamikaze drone, which will be able to carry an anti-tank mine to destroy an enemy tank , or any other type of explosive.
In a corner of the room, a heavy machine gun waits to be transformed into a robotic firing station.
– “Volunteers” –
“Aktor” (“actor” in Ukrainian), 22, was a student at the Igor Sikorsky Technical University in kyiv when the Russian invasion began on February 24. Today, he wears the uniform and works on “robotics” to perfect the kamikaze drone.
For him, these technologies can make a difference in the conflict in Ukraine “because the current war (…) is a new generation war”.
“It is no longer people with weapons who wage war, but robotic vehicles, with a very high technical level”, he assures.
“Why should one soldier shoot another when you have a robot that can deliver a ton of explosives to an ammunition dump?” he asks.
Their leader, “Zmiy” (“snake” in Ukrainian), is the initiator of the group, which according to him has about forty men and women.
A veteran of the Donbass war since 2014, he formed the core of the group with his brothers in arms.
“All the others who build, who invent devices, they joined us via Twitter. They are volunteers”, explains this bearded man with rimmed glasses, wearing a baseball cap decorated with an American flag.
A short distance from their base and less than two kilometers from the Russian lines, “Mikho” the navigator and “11” the pilot prepare a drone for a bomb drop on Russian positions.
Amid constant artillery exchanges, the two men attached a bomb under the drone, an American-made model, commercially available for around 3,000 euros.
Guided by “Mikho”, “11” observes the Russian positions on his screen. Then he releases the bomb which falls vertically and comes crashing down, exploding in a cloud of smoke.
Immediately, the gunshots of the Russian soldiers ring out. They try to destroy the device, which flies at about 300 meters altitude, with their assault rifles. But the aircraft returned to the Ukrainian side without any damage.
