She’s part of a growing army of Ukrainian civilians quietly hand-building small, but lethal precision weapons in makeshift workshops in their kitchens and bedrooms.
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Ukraine has become increasingly reliant on first-person-view (FPV) drones — nimble, armour-busting, tank-blitzing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Since early 2023, the cheap, explosive, flying machines have turned into one of Kyiv’s biggest success stories on the battlefield and change the future of land warfare.
However, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence quickly found demand from frontline units was fast outstripping production.
And so, thousands of volunteers stepped in.
read more on Ukrainian drones
Now, hours of their days – and often nights – are spent sourcing, assembling and soldering the kamikaze weapons.
Zhanna Melnyk, a 25-year-old from Vinnytsia, calls drone building her “hobby” but it’s a lot more than that.
For nine months, she has been a web developer by day and a drone constructor by night.
Like the thousands of others who are quickly joining up to crowdsourced projects, she was desperate to help the war effort and knew the importance of FPVs on the battlefield.
Everyone should contribute to the common goal so we survive
Zhanna Melnyk, civilian drone builder
She volunteers for SocialDrone, a do-it-yourself drone building initiative whose tagline is: “A DIY drone for €250 can do the job a €70,000 Javelin 1 shot”.
Zhanna told The Sun: “We signed up because we had the money, the time and the skills to do it.”
She orders the parts, builds the FPV at home and then ships it to SocialDrone who test it, add explosives and then send it on to the frontline unit of Zhanna’s choosing.
She said she felt like a “little girl” before the war who spent her spare time making jewellery. Now, she has built 23 drones herself.
“It doesn’t sound that much, but it makes a really big impact when it’s a lot of people doing it.”
The first took her and her boyfriend, Dmytro Smolts, 25, two full days to finish. Now, she can build one alone in just half an hour.
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Zhanna said: “I try to do my best. We do not have such a lot of money. But we are building them bit by bit with our own money.”
“It’s a really good feeling for us because it’s very important for all of our country to be involved. It improves the spirit of society.
“This is not the war of army versus army. It’s the war of the [Russian] army against our whole nation. So everybody should contribute to the common goal so we survive.
It’s not rocket science. If you have the time and the money you can start.
Mykhailo Torolchuk, civilian drone builder
“The main reason Ukraine has not lost this war is because we are united. And it’s a really great feeling when you know you are involved and you can do something with your hands.”
In Kyiv, Mykhailo Torolchuk, sits at his cramped desk alone in his bedroom, goggles on, soldering iron in hand.
The 28-year-old software developer has built 26 FPVs so far and has plans to build many more.
The first couple took him three to four weeks to get just right. Now, he’s producing four a week.
Mykhailo told The Sun: “It requires patience, it’s not so difficult but you need to remain calm. The first time you will definitely fail and have to redo it multiple times.
“But I believe everyone can do it. It’s not rocket science. If you have the time and the money you can start.”
He also works for SocialDrone which he called “a big community, full of a lot of people who are really motivated to help the army.”
Before signing up, he was struggling with the ethical dilemma of whether he should build weapons used to kill.
“But now I don’t think like that. Of course I should, everyone should because the survival of our nation depends on this.”
With the late nights and tired hands, Mykhailo is often exhausted working two jobs. “It is like being an endless engine sometimes,” he said.
But it’s all worth it to him if just one of his drones “saves some lives on our side”.
One day he hopes to build drones for fun not war. “Me and my friends are teaching ourselves how to fly drones and after the war we’d like to will go somewhere beautiful and fly them.
“But who knows if we will survive.”
Mykhailo knows he is likely to soon be called to the front.
He said: “If I could be a drone operator I’ll be happy because I know how to fly, I know how to build and to repair. I have friends who build them so I could ask for them to send more.”
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FEEDING THE MACHINE
In 2023, Ukraine’s goal was to procure 200,000 drones. For 2024, Zelensky vowed they would build a million themselves.
Between January and February this year, officials revealed FPV production had already hit 200,000.
But Ukraine still relies on its Western allies for a large chunk of its supply, including 10,000 the UK promised to deliver this year, 1,000 of which are FPVs.
But despite targets and promises, Western deliveries are slow and Ukraine loses over 10,000 drones a month on the battlefield.
Then we realised that this technology would change the course of the war
Yuriy, founder of Wild Hornets
Increasingly, Ukraine is trying to rely on domestic production for the cheaper drones and plenty are answering that call.
An advert for “People’s FPV” – a similar programme to SocialDrone – reads: “Do you want to build an FPV drone with your own hands that will burn a Russian tank? Then this opportunity is for you!”
This initiative has 10,000 volunteers while other projects crowdsourced money into drone manufacturing.
For other Ukrainians they are busy sending whatever money they can into fundraising projects for weapons.
United 24, a project launched by Zelensky, helped to raise £4.7million in just three days for a new fleet of upgraded 5,000 FPV drones as part of “Operation Unity”.
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CIVILIAN ASSEMBLY LINE
Collectively the tireless efforts of Zhanna and Mykhailo and other volunteers are making a difference.
But increasingly civilian-led nonprofit organisations like Wild Hornets are popping up and churning out FPVs on an assembly line to help bolster supply.
Wild Hornets started with three guys. Yuriy was a journalist, Dmytro was in IT, and Max was a filmmaker.
“However the war united us,” the trio – who only provided their first names for security reasons, told The Sun.
As the conflict broke out, Chinese manufactured drones were gaining importance at the front.
So, the founders of Wild Hornets set out to find engineers and donations to manufacture Ukrainian-made FPVs for the military.
In the spring of 2023, Yuriy said: “We managed to produce a batch of ten drones, which we sent to the military, and they destroyed two Russian tanks with them.
“And then we realised that this technology would change the course of the war. One drone worth £300 could disable a tank and another could completely destroy it.
“That’s how the story of the Wild Hornets began.”
At the front, their drones are used as guided missiles and micro-bombers or aerial reconnaissance UAVs and frontline units are desperate to get their hands on them.
Their FPVs can carry up to 2kg of explosives and fly at speeds of 90mph – some of the deadliest and fastest models available.
“A year into our work, we supply drones to dozens of units,” Yuriy said, adding that they produce 1,500 UAVs per month.
They provide UAVs for the most elite and famed frontline units including HUR military intelligence operators, the Separate Presidential Brigade, the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade and the 120th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion.
FPV drones are our sword, our strike force
Ukrainian special ops warrior ‘Arsenal’
Ahead of the expected new Russian ground offensive, which brutally began in northeastern Ukraine last week, Wild Hornets said they were busy preparing.
“We are increasing batches and supplying them to directions where fierce battles are already taking place and where Russia will advance.”
Yuriy could not overstate the importance of FPVs enough. “Without them, our line of defence can be breached.
“In the near future, a grey zone will form along the front line, 15-20km wide, where fighting will mainly involve robots in greater numbers and infantry in fewer numbers, hiding underground.
“Heavy armoured vehicles are becoming less and less effective every day”.
‘UNDENIABLE SUCCESS’
The success of FPVs – including those produced by the Wild Hornets – on the battlefield is “undeniable”, according to the commander of Ukraine’s attack drone operations.
The senior special forces officer “Arsenal” recently told The Sun the quadcopters-turned-munitions now successfully blitz Putin’s targets in three out of five operations.
And as the war moves into what Arsenal called a more “technological phase”, he argued FPVs are increasingly vital to Ukraine’s success.
“If Mavic (surveillance) drones are our eyes – for the adjustment of artillery fire, withdrawal of groups to positions, reconnaissance – then FPV drones are our sword, our strike force.”
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