{"id":7234,"date":"2025-06-07T00:01:23","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T00:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/find-and-destroy-how-ukraines-own-peaky-blinders-mastered-the-art-of-bomber-drones\/"},"modified":"2025-06-07T00:01:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T00:01:23","slug":"find-and-destroy-how-ukraines-own-peaky-blinders-mastered-the-art-of-bomber-drones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/find-and-destroy-how-ukraines-own-peaky-blinders-mastered-the-art-of-bomber-drones\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Find and destroy\u2019 \u2013 how Ukraine\u2019s own Peaky Blinders mastered the art of bomber drones"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u2018Find<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: In accordance with the security protocols of the Ukrainian military, soldiers featured in this story are identified by first names and callsigns only.<\/em><\/p>\n

DONETSK OBLAST<\/strong> \u2013 From the moment the vehicles duck into pre-prepared positions in the leafy treeline to the first dead Russian soldiers, less than twenty minutes pass.<\/p>\n

With the morning sun steadily rising after the team of six complete their short commute to work, the equipment is set up in a clockwork-like rhythm: long telescopic antennas are raised to just peak out of the treeline and sway in the light wind, cables are unravelled, and camping chairs are laid out so the men can work in absolute comfort.<\/p>\n

Out of heavy-duty plastic travel cases emerge the soldiers\u2019 weapons of choice: DJI Mavic drones, available all over the world in shops and of the kind used by civilian video bloggers and aerial photographers everywhere.<\/p>\n

Here in Donetsk Oblast<\/a>, just west of the embattled city of Pokrovsk and only a few kilometers away from Russian positions, lost time means missed opportunities to stop the enemy creeping forward to Ukrainian lines. <\/p>\n

When your unit is consistently deployed to the hottest parts of the front line to do exactly that, every minute counts. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Commander Oleksandr \u201cZalizniak\u201d is the first to fly out, with an unassuming little munition strapped to the bottom of his Mavic.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Find<\/picture>
Oleksandr “Zalizniak,” commander of Ukraine’s Peaky Blinders drone unit on positions near Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, on April 28, 2025. (Francis Farrell\/The Kyiv Independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Zalizniak leads an elite Ukrainian drone unit known as the Peaky Blinders, named after the hit television show which inspired the group\u2019s custom-made camouflage flat caps that they often wear on positions. <\/p>\n

The unit was formed from a group of friends from Kharkiv<\/a>, Ukraine\u2019s second-largest city, and its surrounds. Consisting of businessmen, lawyers, local officials, and IT specialists, Peaky Blinders now serve under the banner of the Omega special operations unit of Ukraine\u2019s National Guard. <\/p>\n

Although they also use the more well-known first-person view (FPV)<\/a> drones, the Peaky Blinders\u2019 specialty is the use of Mavics as bomber drones<\/a> to target expendable Russian foot soldiers, which have become the core of Moscow\u2019s assault tactics<\/a> in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The Kyiv Independent spent a full day embedded with the unit in late April.<\/p>\n

Low on battery and needing to return soon if he doesn\u2019t hit a target, Zalizniak spots movement in a treeline with thin foliage cover \u2013 two Russian troops, carrying something large between them.<\/p>\n

As commander and the most experienced Mavic pilot, it doesn\u2019t take long for Zalizniak to close in on his target, hovering over 50 meters above as he releases the bomb with the push of a button.<\/p>\n

The result is spectacular: a red-hot fireball bursts out of the large item carried by the Russian soldiers, which turned out to be a fuel canister.<\/p>\n

Both infantrymen, wounded from the blast itself, are quickly engulfed in flames. The drone lingers to watch their last moments, burning alive among the trees on another country\u2019s soil.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the two of them, they burned up at work,\u201d says the commander with the wry small and dark humor that only someone who does his kind of job could have.<\/p>\n

Without enough battery to return, Zalizniak\u2019s drone is lost, but it\u2019s a small price to pay for what was achieved, as those two soldiers\u2019 journey toward Ukrainian lines was ended, forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe protection of our infantry<\/a> is our main driving ideology and our motivation, so that as many of them as possible will one day return home\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I see it, for this whole war, we haven\u2019t actually killed anyone, instead we have saved hundreds of lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n
Russia pushes forward in Donetsk Oblast, threatening Ukrainian pocket around Toretsk<\/div>\n
Russian troops have upped the intensity of their Donetsk Oblast offensive in recent weeks, increasingly pressuring a relatively large Ukrainian pocket between some of the last cities in the region. An unsettling situation for Ukrainian troops is now unfolding south of the town of Kostiantynivka, which has long served as<\/div>\n
\"\u2018FindThe Kyiv Independent<\/span>Asami Terajima<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\"\u2018Find<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/figure>\n

Unique formula <\/code><\/h2>\n

After the initial adrenaline of the double hit on the Russian infantryman, the Peaky Blinders find time for a morning coffee and settle into the simple routine that will continue for the rest of the day: change batteries and attach bombs, fly out, look for the enemy, drop bombs, return, and repeat.<\/p>\n

Looking at the team spread out among the treeline, it is immediately clear that this is no ordinary drone unit. <\/p>\n

Instead of a dugout, they prefer to work from camping chairs out in the fresh air, especially when weather allows. <\/p>\n

More strikingly, nobody is watching the live reconnaissance streams of the front line that have become ubiquitous in every Ukrainian drone team or command post. <\/p>\n

\"\u2018Find<\/picture>
A soldier of Ukraine’s Peaky Blinders drone unit on positions near Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, on April 28, 2025. (Francis Farrell\/The Kyiv Independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Instead, the team consists solely of those who fly drones and those who arm them. <\/p>\n

In their eyes, there is no need for more; the Peaky Blinders\u2019 philosophy is underpinned by their motto: To find and destroy.<\/p>\n

Compared to the work of a standard strike FPV team<\/a>, where a target is first found by reconnaissance teams, only after which a drone is sent out to hit it, this unit does both on the same flight, giving them the ability to strike immediately after spotting an enemy soldier.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made our own antennas with amplification, and we can now fly out 8\u20139 kilometers,\u201d said Zalizniak. <\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to that, we\u2019re getting a big result \u2014 we’re flying into their rear, where they don’t expect to see us. But because of that, we’re also losing drones.\u201d<\/p>\n

After moving positions before lunch due to neighboring electronic warfare activity disrupting their work, the four pilots once again fly out into the Russian rear, but in the midday heat, the Russian soldiers are nowhere to be seen out and about.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Find<\/picture>
A soldier of Ukraine’s Peaky Blinders drone unit on positions near Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, on April 28, 2025. (Francis Farrell\/The Kyiv Independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Often, Zalizniak told the Kyiv Independent, when conditions are too good for drone flying, Russian soldiers stay put in basements or other forms of cover.<\/p>\n

When targets are less keen to come out into the open, one of the most important skills of any aspiring Mavic bomber pilot becomes spotting even the slightest movement on the screen of their remote control.<\/p>\n

Unlike the cheap cameras on expendable FPV drones, Mavic drones are equipped with high-definition cameras, and some have significant zoom abilities, making them the perfect tool for such joint reconnaissance\/bomber missions. <\/p>\n

“This is where I find creativity,\u201d said pilot Maksym \u201cMytrych.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cRight here \u2014 in the very process of fighting the enemy. It’s incredibly interesting \u2014 how to approach, from which side. For me, it\u2019s like a kind of dance.”<\/p>\n