Quantity replaces quality when periscopes are made for Ukrainian soldiers. Now more and more soldiers can safely spy on the positions of Russian soldiers.
KREMENTSHUK One door of the dilapidated row of garages is open. The inside reveals a workshop full of machines and tools. On the top shelf, a tame crow watches as two men hammer joints.
This is how you could imagine the comic book hero Pelle Pelottoman’s inventor’s room, but in this garage is a real-life brainiac Denys Sylynnyk quickly, efficiently and cheaply equip Ukrainian soldiers.
His hit product is a periscope, with which soldiers can safely peer into enemy positions from their trenches.
Before the war, Sylynnyk worked as a metalwork teacher at a vocational school, where he used 3D printers. When he heard that periscopes were needed at the front, he acquired more printers, and began making periscopes properly on a contract basis.
– Our periscopes have already saved at least a thousand lives from sniper bullets and grenade fragments, says Sylynnyk.
The workshop in Sylynnyk is part of a nationwide network that has already sent more than 15,000 periscopes to the Ukrainian army for free.
According to Sylynnyk, Russia’s large military industry has not been able to supply as many periscopes to its own soldiers.
In the basement below the garage, nine 3D printers build the periscope parts layer by layer, around the clock. The same equipment can be used to produce small but important parts for various weapon systems, from cannons to tanks.
– Almost once a month we come up with something new. Now we make lights for artillery use, Sylynnyk says.
The workshop flexibly manufactures what is needed at the front at any given time.
– We have found our own market niche by making technically very simple tools, which are nevertheless as useful as possible, says Sylynnyk.
For example, the material costs of a periscope are only three euros. The creators work hard on the taluks, and financial support is received from volunteers all over the country and from abroad as far as Finland.
Sylynnyk does not use intermediaries, so the various units of the army receive the goods as quickly as possible. At the time of ‘s film crew’s visit, a batch of 70 periscopes was leaving, which was supposed to arrive the next day.
– We don’t like products lying around unused in a warehouse. We send them straight to the front.
Sylynnyk’s workshop is an example of civic activism: Ukrainians strive to support the country’s armed forces where they are most useful.