The perils of enemy observation at the Donbas front
“Pack it up, guys. We’ve been spotted.” Commander Yuri, nom de guerre “Commerce,” had just been warned that two Russian Orlan surveillance drones were flying nearby, some 15 kilometers from enemy lines in the Donetsk region. Driving a Roshel Senator armored vehicle, donated by Canada, he had just gotten to the scheduled area of operations. In this windy end of February, Commerce, 38, a decorator in civilian life, and his three subordinates were preparing to fly a locally-made Leleka (Ukrainian for “stork”) surveillance drone. The operation had to be postponed. Today, fixed-wing drones of this type play a crucial role in the war against the Russian invaders, by observing the enemy in depth, far behind the front lines. Every brigade in the Ukrainian army has a reconnaissance battalion, with one or more drone-equipped aerial reconnaissance units. Their mission consists of finding high-value targets such as electronic warfare equipment (EWE), long-range artillery, heavy armor, command posts, and logistics centers. Commander Yuri ordered the crates containing the drone and the antenna to be quickly repacked into the …