Ukrainian soldiers armed with scissors say they cut any fiber-optic drone cable they see — even if it might be their own

• Ukrainian soldiers are cutting the cables of all fiber optic drones they find.

• Some carry scissors so they can be ready when they find them. They also use knives and their bare hands.

• The threat these drones pose means they don’t even think about who they belong to.

Ukrainian soldiers are chopping everything fiber optic drone Cables they encounter, regardless of which side they belong to. They use scissors, knives, even their bare hands.

Soldiers say it doesn’t matter if there’s a drone or not Ukrainian or Russian. If they are unsure, they assume it is hostile.

This jam is controlled by drones long, thin cables They flooded the battlefield as a countermeasure electronic warfare This often renders radio frequency drones inoperable.

As these drones became increasingly productive, the result was: forests and ditches growled with discarded and active cables.

Ukrainian analyst Dimko Zhluktenko Unmanned System ForcesHe said he always carries scissors so he can “cut every optical fiber we see.”

He said his unit had “stopped seeing them as friend or foe.” “We think they are some kind of enemy UAVs.”

In a YouTube video about the equipment he carriesZhluktenko said the scissors became so important that when his unit began working in areas filled with fiber-optic cables, every team member was required to carry a pair. He said he bought retractors for his team so no one would lose them.

A Ukrainian soldier who spoke to Business Insider on condition of anonymity said that soldiers could often break the thin wires with their hands; However, this is often not necessary. Soldiers in his unit already carry medical scissors. Many also have knives.

He said there can be so many wires on the battlefield that “you don’t know if it’s a new issue or an old issue that’s been around for a long time.” So his unit cuts out what he finds as often as possible.

Not just fiber optic cables

Other similar behavior has been observed on the battlefield.

Sometimes there are so many unmanned aerial vehicles in the sky that soldiers looking from the ground cannot even tell which one is friend and which is foe. In such cases, soldiers can be ordered to shoot down any UAV they see.

Zhluktenko previously told Business Insider that soldiers in charge of electronic warfare systems sometimes panic when they cannot distinguish drones from each other and confuse everything in the air.

Zhluktenko told Business Insider that cutting fiber-optic cables isn’t something he has to do often because his unit often works in areas further away from front-line battles where fiber-optic drones are less available. He described it as something they encounter “sometimes.”

Soldiers from Ukraine’s 15th Mobile Border Detachment “Steel Border” had previously said in a video produced for Ukraine’s state border agency that using scissors was a reliable way to disable Russian drones. Russian soldiers reportedly did the same.

If an active and operational drone’s cable is intact, the only way to stop it is to physically shoot it (soldiers say shotguns work best); But this requires a mix of skill and luck.

Fiber optic drones are a relatively new feature in this war that has not been used on this scale before. The fact that these drones can be disabled with simple tools (scissors, knife, bare hands) underscores a broader pattern in Ukraine: Advanced systems are often countered with low-tech fixes.

In many cases, some of the most effective counter-tools against advanced technology have been old or improvised means of warfare, from shotguns used against small drones to nets draped over vehicles and positions and blind air strikes. Even drones themselves are cheap innovations designed to outperform more expensive equipment and wartime demands.

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