The Ukrainian drone pilots out to halt Putin’s war machine

Cruising high above dense Ukrainian forest, the combat drone spotted the long Russian column winding down the road from the Belarusian border. Its pilot, operating from afar, used the on-board cameras to scan the treeline for signs of anti-aircraft defences, then selected his target.

The bombs struck the spine of the column and one after another the fuel tankers erupted in a chain reaction of fireballs that illuminated his screen. “I think this was my greatest achievement,” the pilot, with the call sign Odesa, told The Times. “It stopped the offensive in the Chernihiv and Kyiv directions because the enemy had equipment but no fuel.”

Odesa, a senior officer in Ukraine’s military intelligence, operates a Bayraktar TB2, the Turkish combat drone made famous by several videos posted online of its precision strikes on Russian equipment. He has flown dozens of sorties with the TB2, destroying more than fifty high-value targets, from anti-aircraft missile systems to ammunition depots. He is the first Bayraktar pilot to talk publicly about his missions. “The work of a Bayraktar is similar to a surgical process,” Odesa said. “It is not a means of air support of the army, like attack helicopters or planes. Our objective is to force the enemy to stop their advance, by destroying fuel, ammunition. I deprive them of the means to attack our troops.”

Ukraine is believed to have had fewer than 20 of the drones when the Russians invaded, but their effectiveness has become legendary. Intercepted radio calls from panicked Russian sailors pursued by TB2s near Snake Island show the extent to which they strike fear into the heart of the enemy. Ukrainian forces are so enamoured of their Bayraktars they have dedicated a jaunty war song to them, the English version of which goes: “A great flock of sheep strayed west from the east, they bleated and baa’d they disrupted our peace, A good shepherd took them to the abattoir: Bay-rak-tar!”

The country’s supporters have been crowdfunding to raise the money to buy more, prompting Baykar, the Turkish manufacturer, to announce last week that it would donate three to the Ukrainian military free of charge. They normally sell for almost $5 million each.

Yet their success has also made the drones and their crews a target for Russian forces. The truck-mounted control units, which can operate a TB2 up to 180 miles away, are constantly on the move to avoid retaliatory strikes. “Of course we’re regularly changing our positions, that’s necessary if you want to live,” Odesa said with a wry smile.

In his forties, with greying, close-cropped hair and beard, Odesa is a professional soldier. He joined the armed forces in 1999 after graduating from Kharkiv Military University as an engineer. He started flying smaller drones in 2014, when the Kremlin annexed Crimea and launched a hybrid invasion of the Donbas region.

To fly a TB2 he had to pass a series of tests before attending training with Baykar. One scrutinised his emotional state and his ability to stay calm under pressure. The drone can spend more than 24 hours in the air with alternating pilots, so another examined his ability to stay focused for long periods on monotonous tasks, like scouring hedgerows for hidden artillery or anti-aircraft systems.

All of that paid dividends when the Russians advanced on the Ukrainian capital in February. His unit’s drones were in the air constantly at the height of the battle for Kyiv, with the pilots flying gruelling ten-hour missions with very little sleep while their families fled the country. “It was difficult to deal with the information that our wives and children are in danger. I have two children, but I’m not just talking about mine, I’m talking about all the children of Ukraine. I understand the loss of soldiers, but I can’t understand the killing of children,” he said. “But there is no place for emotions here. I have no anger, if I will be angry I will only harm myself and not be able to perform the task. I must stay absolutely calm, so that my hands do not shake. I imagine I am playing a video game.”

The TB2, with a 12m wingspan and a top speed of 136mph, is smaller and slower than most Nato combat drones, but is also much cheaper to produce. It can spend all day and night at an altitude of 25,000ft (7,600m), allowing it to perform long-term reconnaissance tasks with powerful digital and thermal-imaging cameras. It has a laser target designator to assist artillery and can strike with four munitions of its own, which can be a combination of laser-guided smart rockets, bombs or missiles.

Because Ukraine has so few combat drones Odesa said he feels a profound responsibility for each one he takes to the air. “I’m like a jeweller who loves his tool and always handles it with velvet gloves,” he laughed. Yet the drones are vulnerable to the Kremlin’s sophisticated air defence systems and even the most careful operators have lost planes. Ukraine urgently needs replacements, he said.

On one occasion a Russian S-300 missile complex detected his TB2 near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. “I saw the missile launch and explosion nearby and lost contact. We were upset because we thought we lost the drone.” A few hours later the TB2 made a miraculous return, performing an automatic landing at their airfield. “We saw he was completely punctured with holes but he made it,” Odessa said. “After this he was restored and did a lot more good work.”

In another instance a Russian warplane hit one of the drones with an air-to-air missile. It kept flying, but Odesa couldn’t understand the readings and had to abort the mission. Even so, the drone was able to return to base, albeit with enormous damage. “The quality of the drone is impressive. Almost all flight systems are duplicated, so the back-up systems can return it even with significant damage.”

His work has become like a game of chess, Odesa said, with both sides learning more about the other’s capabilities as the war progresses. The Russians try to set up air defences to ambush TB2s en route to a valuable target, and the pilots try to plot routes to their objectives dodging areas where the air defences can be concealed.

The US has promised to send Ukraine the larger and faster Gray Eagle drone, which would provide his men with a powerful new piece in the game, Odesa said. “We’re excited to fly the Gray Eagles and share our experience. Drones from advanced countries such as Israel and the United States have no experience of fighting against a high-tech army such as Russia. Their air defence is one of the most powerful in the world.”