I’d studied computer science and only recently landed a great internship at a game company. But I saw the news and knew my options were to sit and wait for them to come and kill me or go running into the fight. Comparing the early days of the war to now, it’s like two different worlds.
Back then there were drones, but most of the damage was still done by artillery. Now, drones are everywhere, from the front line all the way back 30 kilometres. It’s terrifying because you used to be able to come a little way back from the fighting for rest and feel completely safe.
Now, danger is always looming over you, wherever you are. Jet-powered drones pose a new threat to Ukraine – can they be stopped? I occasionally have the chance to get back to Kyiv and then I feel like I’m not losing my mind quite as fast as usual.
It’s a partial respite because on the front line we work 24 hours a day and the non-stop fighting is hugely draining, but you’re still aware of the risk of drone strikes even in Kyiv. You just can’t escape it. On the front line, we spend 90 per cent of our time underground in bunkers because of the threat of enemy drones.
Every time you go outside, you risk being spotted and killed. The conditions are like camping, but it obviously has a very different vibe. I’ve done a lot of different jobs as a drone pilot, but at the end of the day, the mission was always to protect our ground troops.
I spent time as a reconnaissance drone pilot, then flying bomber drones and now I’m doing anti-drone missions in a regiment called Aquila under the control of the 3rd Army Corps. We specialise in shooting down everything from small first-person view (FPV) drones to the long-range kamikaze models heading for Ukraine’s cities. We’ve got short-range anti-aircraft guns, shoulder-launched rockets and drones.
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