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cyberbenb · 2 days ago

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The first ever all-drone assault by Ukraine

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A ground kamikaze drone similar to those used in the assault. Note the green device mounted on the drone, made to imitate an American claymore mine.

In the early dawn hours, as the sun rose in the first week of December 2024, a symphony of drones began to sound.

But this was no ordinary drone wave.

In fact, this one was the first attack of its kind: a successful, all-drone assault on Russian positions. The assault, deserving of a place in the history books, took place near Lyptsi, in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine.

It was a test – initially expected to fail – of whether multiple units could orchestrate a mission with dozens of FPV, recon, turret-mounted, and kamikaze drones all working in tandem on the ground and in the air.

The Counteroffensive is the first news outlet to publish a detailed play-by-play of this milestone in drone warfare, following interviews with some of the unit’s military officers.

True to his nickname, a military officer with the call sign ‘Happy’ grins in front of the Khartiia Brigade emblem.

'Happy,' the call sign for a soldier from Mykolaiv Oblast, is known for his ever-present smile and a moustache groomed to evoke the facial hair of a Zaporizhzhian Cossack – he wanted a style that stood out. He asked to be identified only by his call sign for security purposes.

At just 22 years old, he is the commander of a platoon known as the Ground Unmanned Robotics Unit, which has the informal nickname ‘Deus Ex Machina,’ or literally in Latin, ‘a God from a machine.’

“We will be here until the end, we will defend our land, and we will move forward to victory with confidence,” the young military officer told The Counteroffensive earlier this week.

He graduated from a military university in Kyiv, becoming an officer, and sometime after that moved to the Khartiia Brigade. His background is in military engineering, mostly involving demining and emplacing mines, he explained alternating between curling his Ukrainian-styled mustache and taking drags from his cigarette.

He began commanding the platoon this past summer. Within just months, he and his unit have had to become fast experts in using, innovating with, and repairing Ukrainian ground drones – to say nothing of establishing a set of tactics and procedures to use them effectively with other types of weaponry.

“When we felt discomfort, we developed. We did not [previously have expertise in] drones, it was uncomfortable for us,” ‘Happy’ explained. “And it forced us to work more intensively on ourselves and with drones.”

Does defense technology in Ukraine interest you? Did you know we have a sister publication that covers the ins-and-outs of Ukrainian miltech innovation? Check out www.counteroffensive.pro today!

Planning the first successful all-drone mission:

The unit itself has a less-strict culture than the rest of the Ukrainian military, one that reflects its role as laboratory for cutting-edge military innovations.

"It doesn't really matter what your rank is. It depends on people. If you have people who can do stuff efficiently, we don't care about your rank. It can be some [random] soldier who does better work than some very high-profile officer. So we don't care about this," said ‘Mathematician,’ the call sign of an officer who advises units in the brigade about how to use drone technology for maximum tactical effect.

The units involved in this assault were tasked by the Khartiia Brigade commander with an experiment: could they organize an all-drone assault within a week – and actually pull it off?

"I was skeptical… and didn't expect at all some [level of] success,” ‘Mathematician’ said.

The higher-ups were half-expecting that they would very quickly get word that the drone force had been decimated early in the mission.

A Ukrainian military officer with the call sign ‘Mathematician’ poses in a garage with drones belonging to his unit. His tattoo reads: “No Human is Immortal”

To do this right, they would have to invent a new playbook entirely. After all, it was a completely novel approach to an assault. As part of the planning, they established checkpoints, routes and designated communications channels.

The assault was rehearsed on three occasions, with one of the main concerns being that the Russians would spot the incoming wave of Ukrainian drones, and move to destroy them before they could be effectively deployed.

Because of the significant amounts of ordinance being deployed with the ground drones, an early Russian counter-attack could cause the kamikaze drones to explode and destroy the rest of the assault elements.

Forty-eight hours before the mission began, drones began being moved to their starting points. Success was defined in the mission planning as all drones arriving on target and striking their designated assignments.

The Khartiia Brigade demonstrates some of the drones at their disposal.

How the mission went down:

The mission itself involved complex logistics and communications requirements. No drone swarm technology was used, which meant that each individual drone was piloted by an individual pilot.

Less than 100 soldiers were involved in the operation, including pilots, logisticians, planners and support staff – all to launch an assault of around 30 drones, ‘Mathematician’ said.

About a half a dozen kamikaze and machine-gun-mounted ground drones were used. Also involved in the assault were several FPVs, including one with a mounted assault rifle. Large copter drones dropped munitions, while dozens more surveillance/recon drones provided battlefield awareness.

Multiple units were involved in the attack, although the Ukrainian military declined to specify which units or how many. They also declined to say how the troops communicated with one another.

What we do know is that ground and aerial drones were working together, with pilots spaced out in different locations, coordinating the mission while watching the battlefield context simultaneously from a common video feed.

What took days to plan took just one or two hours to play out, along a heavily-fortified Russian position near a large forest.

A ground drone that has the capability for mounting a turret on top of it, similar to one used during the assault in early December.

The waves of drones from air and ground simultaneously took the Russian position off guard – and inspired a sudden panic. While aerial drone attacks are common along the frontlines, the use of ground drones in tandem is not.

Ukrainian units intercepted Russian communications that showed chaos and fear among Russian troops, who were fighting machines with no human troops in sight, ‘Mathematician’ said. This was its intended effect: to create some pressure on the Russian lines and suppress the enemy.

Due to careful planning, they didn't lose any drones to Russian electronic warfare, which often disrupts communications between pilots and drones. A number of Russian FPV drones tried to strike the attacking Ukrainian ones, but were unsuccessful.

Terrain, it turned out, was a major challenge. Ukrainian mud is famous for its thick, sticky texture. The black 'chernozem' soil has been the source of the country's ultra-productive agricultural sector, but also causes incredible challenges for cars, tanks and ground drones alike.

The conceptual tradeoff between air and ground drones fundamentally comes down to payload. Air drones can largely fly free of the constraints created by obstacles, but they can carry far less than ground drones can; ground drones can carry much more, but have to contend with Ukraine’s famously thick mud, foliage, and other surface-level impediments.

In fact, during the mission, one of the Ukrainian ground drones got stuck in the mud (one of the unit’s planners brightly noted that it was never destroyed and was eventually recovered from the field by Ukrainian forces).

Does defense technology in Ukraine interest you? Did you know we have a sister publication that covers the ins-and-outs of Ukrainian miltech innovation? Check out www.counteroffensive.pro today!

What’s next for all-drone warfare

The Khartiia Brigade demonstrates a recon dog-like drone, a ground kamikaze drone, and a mine-laying drone they have in their inventory.

The mission succeeded beyond expectations: right after the ground drones finished their mission, infantry rushed into the area and secured the positions, ‘Mathematician’ told The Counteroffensive. In fact, he said, Ukrainian troops still hold this particular position today.

It’s obvious that the innovators in these units want first and foremost to save Ukrainian lives. Using more drones for more missions means less blood shed.

"The advantage is obvious: that robots do it, not people. And, let's say, if robots are destroyed, it will not feel pain. It’s just a tin can. It is much better to lose a drone than the life of a human,” said ‘Happy,’ the platoon commander.

The success of this mission will likely mean more iteration, more tinkering, more missions, and experimentation with different scales of attacks.

"This is just the beginning of the process. We will work to do more and more similar missions -- and even better ones," ‘Happy’ said.

When not working with drones, the officer is a devotee of Stephen King novels – so he’s no stranger to the horror of unintended consequences.

A recon dog drone does a ‘downward dog’ yoga pose – or so it seems – during a demonstration by the Khartiia Brigade. This was not used during the assault described in the story.

In particular, he said he’s scared about how artificial intelligence may merge with drone technology. As of yet, drones cannot make most decisions on their own without humans – yet.

“I think it's a matter of time before a person makes a big mistake,” he said.

Still, the officer lives up to his nickname, and is optimistic about the immediate next steps. He’s also quite happily disinterested in his role during a significant achievement in military technology.

In the meantime, he isn’t sure how to put this achievement in context. Maybe he will only understand the significant years from now, with the passage of time, he mused.

Right now, it’s too close to what happened.

And there’s so much more work to do.

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NEWS OF THE DAY:

ZELENSKYY OFFERS MINERALS TO TRUMP: Ukraine's president said he is ready to cooperate with the US on minerals in exchange for security guarantees, according to Reuters. This was in response to Trump's previous demands to supply the U.S. with rare earth elements in exchange for financial aid.

The minerals can be used to produce high-performance magnets, electric motors, and consumer electronics. Currently, Russia controls Ukrainian territories containing up to 20% of its valuable mineral deposits.

FBI DIRECTOR NOMINEE PAID BY RUSSIAN: Kash Patel, whom Trump nominated for the FBI director position, received $25,000 from a film company with possible Kremlin ties, The Washington Post reported. The company ‘Global Tree Pictures’ is run by a Russian, who previously produced a pro-Russian campaign supported by Putin’s fund.

Patel was paid by Russians to participate in a documentary about veterans of the first Trump administration allegedly falling victim to a conspiracy that "destroyed their lives." It signals that the most crucial position in the agency responsible for anti-Russian espionage will go to someone who received money from a possible Kremlin ally.

UKRAINE STARTS NEW KURSK COUNTEROFFENSIVE: Kyiv launched new assaults in the Kursk region, advancing 2.5 kilometers deep in Russia, Zelenskyy stated. Meanwhile, the North Korean military has returned to fighting, following earlier reports that it had retreated following massive losses. Ukraine has been holding Russian territory for six months. It could be used as a bargaining chip in possible negotiations with Putin.

BALTIC STATES LEAVE RUSSIAN ENERGY SYSTEM: The Baltic States will become independent of the Russian energy system established during the Soviet era. Instead, they will join the European energy system, as Ukraine did in 2022. This shift comes amid Russia's severing of undersea cables, which has spurred efforts to strengthen regional security, including energy security. Recently, The Counteroffensive joined the Lithuanian naval patrol to counter Russian sabotage, click here to read it.

DOG OF WAR

Today’s dog of war is a Ukrainian robopup named Zhorik, a common name for a dog.

I have to say that I was pretty freaked out when thinking about the possibilities of using machines like this in combat. But for now, he’s a very good boy.

Stay safe out there.

Best,

Tim

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mariacallous · 2 years ago

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ZAPORIZHZHIA – On Sept. 30, residents of Zaporizhzhia woke up to the horrendous news of a bloody Russian strike on a convoy of civilian cars in their city overnight.

The attack with S-300 missiles killed 31 civilians and wounded 88 more.

Though the deadliest to date, it wasn’t the first strike on Zaporizhzhia since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

But something about that day was strikingly different. Just a mere hours after the attack, Russia announced the annexation of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, declaring it to be Russian territory along with three other partially occupied Ukrainian regions. The announcement came following sham referendums held between Sept. 23-27.

Around 75% of the southern Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia Oblast is now occupied by Russia, but unlike in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kherson oblasts, the regional capital of Zaporizhzhia remains under Ukrainian control.

In the week following Russia’s illegal annexation, deadly strikes on Zaporizhzhia, an industrial hub with a prewar population of 710,000, continued.

On Oct. 6, 14 people were killed and 12 more, including two children, were injured as a residential building on the city’s central avenue was hit by a Russian missile.

“It’s an act of pure emotion, of anger,” said local children’s hospital worker Tetiana Huliaieva, 52. “What they fail to understand is that we have already broken up with Russia forever.”

History of resistance

For centuries, the name Zaporizhzhia has been synonymous with resistance in the face of imperial expansion.

The area was the home of the Zaporizhzhian Cossacks, a fierce warrior nation of Ukrainians that inhabited the borderlands of the steppe in the 15-18th centuries. At various times, they fought against Crimean Tatars, Ottoman Turks, Poles, and the Russian Empire, which finally annexed the area in 1775.

Their defiance was immortalized in one of the most famous works of Ukrainian-born painter Illia Repin, which shows Zaprozizhzhian Cossacks laughing as they draft a reply to an ultimatum from the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire ordering them to surrender. Since 2014 when Russia initially invaded Ukraine, the scene has been recreated by the Ukrainian military in the context of its resistance against Russian aggression.

In 2022, history repeated itself: As Russia is attempting to force Zaporizhzhia into surrendering, local residents have a response similar to that of their Cossack ancestors.

Vote at gunpoint

As soon as “voting” in the sham referendums began in the occupied regions of Ukraine on Sept. 23, videos began to emerge of the coercive and fraudulent process, which showed no resemblance to a free and fair vote.

With the front line less than 40 kilometers away, many residents of Zaporizhzhia have relatives and friends in the occupied territories. Phone and internet connection, though sporadic, has shone a light on how exactly the “vote” was conducted.

Huliaieva’s mother, an ardent supporter of Ukraine, lives in occupied Vasylivka, a town 45 kilometers away from Zaporizhzhia on the bank of the Dnipro River. On the second day of the sham referendum, local “election officials” called upon her house in the company of armed Russian soldiers to force her participation. Huliaieva recalled her mother’s account:

“A collaborator came to her door, behind her two men with automatic rifles.

'Auntie Olia,' she said, 'will you vote?'.

'Why are they coming here with rifles asking me to vote?' she said.

'What should they come with, lasers?'

'Sure, even with lasers if they want to, but not with rifles.'

That's how they did it, apartment by apartment. 'And you know if you don't vote,' the woman said, 'you might not get your next pension.'

I had warned her earlier, I told her to quietly and quickly put a cross in the ‘no’ box, but not to cause a scene. I don't know exactly what she did at the end, she didn't say.”

The results of the sham votes were a foregone conclusion. Russia’s Central Election Commission, which claims to have overseen the process, announced a 93.11% vote in favor of joining Russia, with a claimed turnout of 85.4% in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Similar numbers were announced for other three partially occupied regions.

Huliaeva says that collaborators know “exactly what kind of nonsense” these figures are. “After victory I will go there, I will fetch my mother, and I will look them all in the eye.”

Circus on Red Square

Thousands of Russians were bussed into Moscow’s central Red Square for a concert in celebration of the annexation on Sept. 30. The slogan on the stage proclaimed that Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts were now Russia.

As Russia celebrated the illegal annexation, the fragility of its grip on the occupied territories continued to be exposed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. On the next day, Ukraine liberated Lyman, a strategically important city in Donetsk Oblast.

Despite their city becoming a new Russian regional capital in the eyes of the Kremlin, many locals in Zaporizhzhia did not pay the event much attention.

For Valerii, 55, a biker and long-haul truck driver who goes by the name of “Jim Beam,” there was no reason to tune in. “Why should I watch that?” he said. “It's all fake, nobody is interested in those ‘referendums.’”

Maksym Hrytsenko and Aliona Ivanova, both 19-year-old university students, also felt no inclination to follow the spectacle of their region’s annexation closely.

“I caught bits of it, but why spend your time and nerves on that?” Hrytsenko said. “On one hand my reaction was angry and aggressive, on the other it was to be expected, and doesn't change anything.”

“They can sing out whatever they want on their Red Square,” Ivanova said. “Zaporizhzhia is Ukraine and Zaporizhzhia Oblast is Ukraine.”

“It’s just to show the Russian audience that they achieved something with their stupid ‘special operation,’ that so many of them died for a reason.”

A matter of time

Following the annexation of the four Ukrainian regions, Pavel Krasheninnikov, head of Russia’s State Duma Committee on State Building and Legislation, told media that Zaporizhzhia Oblast would join Russia within its administrative borders, despite about 25% of the region living in Ukrainian-controlled territory.

In the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when Russian forces swept quickly through the south of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, the regional capital itself became the next major target.

As with Kharkiv and Mykolaiv, however, Ukrainian forces held the line outside the city, and Russia has failed to make any significant advances in the sector since March.

“We were scared at first,” said Hrytsenko, “but the chances that they could enter Zaporizhzhia now are close to zero.

Russia’s rule in the occupied areas of Zaporizhzhia Oblast is far from secure either. The city of Melitopol, occupied since March 1, has become a center of Ukrainian partisan activity. Multiple attacks on Russian military bases and Russian proxies in Melitopol have been reported repeatedly by the city’s exiled mayor Ivan Fedorov.

“My friends are there, doing great work,” Valerii said, “eliminating Russian soldiers, collaborators.”

“I don’t want to live a life of theft and violence, and that is what life under Russia is about,” he said. “The only place for a thief is either in prison or in the ground.”

Valerii’s ex-wife lives in occupied Berdiansk, a port city in Zaporizhzhia Oblast 75 kilometers southwest of occupied Mariupol.

“She told me the Russians don't come into Berdiansk anymore, they stay outside the city limits, afraid of our partisans,” he said. “Hardly anyone feels that Russia will be there for long.”

In the days following the illegal annexation, Russia has suffered heavy defeats on the battlefield, losing settlement after settlement in newly-annexed Luhansk, Donetsk, and Kherson oblasts.

On Oct. 3, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia would hold “consultations with locals” to define the new “borders” of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts, though no details were given on what that might look like.

Regardless of the status of the region in Russia, there is no doubt in the minds of locals that Russia will be forced from their region for good.

“It's harder (for Ukrainian forces) to push them (Russians) here,” Ivanova said. “It's an open steppe and it's crawling with them.”

“It may take longer, but it’s just a matter of time, and we are waiting patiently.”

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