The war is also being played out a lot in the skies of Ukraine. While waiting to receive more ammunition and the F16 combat planes promised by its Western allies, the Ukrainian army is using drones massively to complicate the advance of the Russian enemy. All over the country, secret workshops are scattered to manufacture these devices of death which in two years have taken on capital importance.
2 mins
With our special envoys in Donbass, Nathanaël Vittrant And Bertrand Haeckler and with Andrii Kolesnyk
We are somewhere in Donbass. For obvious security reasons, we will not say more, but this is where a small part of the war in the sky is being played out. We arrive inside a secret location.
“ Welcome to this small workshop of Brigade 92 “Achille”. Here we manufacture the ammunition that will equip the drones. »
The battalion leader is called Victor. Nom de guerre “Farmer”: he was a farmer before the war. “ Do you see this explosive material? We took it from this anti-personnel mine, boiling it. We take what interests us, the rest is recycled. »
There are different types of workshops. The goal each time is to recycle, basically, military equipment, explosive equipment, to manufacture drones for very specific uses. For example, we see something that looks like a small ball of modeling clay, but it’s explosive!
“ A kamikaze drone costs between $500 and $600 to make, plus ammunition, and it can destroy a tank for three or four million dollars without risking the lives of our men. It is very effective », we are told.
A little white cat wanders among the missiles, bombs and explosive materials. He was adopted by the battalion and became their mascot. “ We called him Nut ! »
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