What it’s like to be hunted by drones in Ukraine

In a post-apocalyptic sprawl of overgrown vegetation and abandoned buildings, we are chased by drones.

They circle above us, following our movements, ready to dive the moment we step outside. They move through buildings and follow us from room to room. They lurk, hiding in the tall grass; His tireless eyes were fixed on doorways and windows.

Some of us carry “Chuika” drone detectors that can capture first-person view (FPV) feeds so we can watch them watching us. The rest applies to our eyes and ears.

It’s not hard to hear: drones They emit a hellish screaming sound that becomes deafening as they approach front-line troops, haunting front-line troops for years after deployment.

Avoiding them is another matter.

This taste of the “kill zone” that The Telegraph experienced with more than a dozen journalists was a simulation hosted by the 2402 Foundation, a Ukrainian frontline organization that provides security training to journalists, NGO workers and more.

Still, as one of the few programs tuned to the realities of the work environment UkrainianIt offered a brief, thought-provoking glimpse of the deadly air threat that is a daily reality for Ukrainians living and fighting on the front lines.

The conflict, once expected to rely on artillery and tanks, has long turned into a decentralized contest of drones and electronic warfare extending tens of kilometers beyond the front in both directions. This is constantly expanding as the range of drones increases.

High in the sky, long-range reconnaissance drones monitor every move of the troops below. Kamikaze and precision bombers hide underneath for targets; Some are connected to fiber optic cables that can evade detection and electronic warfare, connecting fields and buildings.

The roads are cratered and littered with burnt vehicle debris. Those who still dare to cross highways block their cars and trucks with metal cages or nails.

Bodies often cannot be retrieved. Evacuation of the injured is often not possible except by ground-based robots that move unsteadily through potholed terrain.

As for the troops, they are likely traveling in small groups, under the cover of fog and wearing anti-thermal clothing to avoid detection.

Drones are thought to be responsible for around 80 percent of front-line casualties on both sides. An FPV costing $400 (£320) is a small price to pay for a human life; the kill zone it has become an ever-evolving testing ground for technologies designed to achieve this.

Media workers can easily become targets. Towards the end of 2025, Russian drones killed three reporters and injured several others.

In recent weeks there has been an alarming debate in Ukraine over whether journalists should be allowed to carry weapons that can shoot down drones.

In the absence of more confrontational measures, the experienced trainers of the 2402 Foundation have offered us a rulebook.

Rule number one, when confronting a person head on FPV drone: disintegration. If you are clustered, you can all be destroyed in a single attack. Alone you are a less valuable target. The drone is forced to choose. Then it’s all up to chance; roll of a dice.

If there is no cover, reduce your silhouette; If you’re going to hide, run for your life. Stay in the shadows. Camouflage yourself as best you can. Look for walls to hide your heat signature or foliage to reduce your visibility.

If you survive, pray that you can be seen now and there will be no more.

None of these rules are guaranteed to save you. But as we are told, we are not taught how to survive, but rather “how to try to survive.”

For drone operators on both sides, this is not an abstraction. Every day, camera-carrying, bomb-laden unmanned aerial vehicles cross the occupied territory of Ukraine, searching for enemy targets.

A little away in a large educational area KyivThe Telegraph also visited Ukrainian drone operators testing quadcopter FPVs under a cloudy sky.

They belong to Drone Fight Club, an academy founded by professional pilot Vladyslav Plaksin. The club has trained more than 7,000 drone pilots and developed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology in dialogue with manufacturers and front-line troops.

Its staff of instructors, developers and test pilots regularly travel to the front line to ensure their work keeps pace with the rapid pace of innovation on the battlefield.

The expansion of drone technology has led some to propose the following idea:robot war”On the front line of Ukraine.

The truth is that people skills are more important than ever. While Russia and Ukraine are racing to train highly skilled drone operators, Moscow aims to train one million drone operators by 2030.

Comparing piloting a drone to “controlling a tiger,” Plaksin said that although anyone can be trained to fly a UAV, the skills that will make them a particularly successful operator may be unexpected.

He told The Telegraph that there’s a misconception that good response time is the most important feature, but in reality “you have to think in the future when you’re flying. Everything you’re doing now is already in the past. You need to know where your drone will be in two, three seconds, so musicians are excellent operators.”

In a nearby portable cabin, a front-line drone operator and instructor with the call sign “Kirya” who has trained more than 1,500 drone pilots pilots a thermal drone across fields that illuminates bodies, car tires and other hot objects in blinding white.

It’s a relief to be on the other side of the camera this time, but watching his movements makes it clear how difficult new developments make hiding in the death zone.

“Previously, we used thermal cameras mostly at night,” said Girya, who has more than 1,000 hours of experience piloting drones. “We now use them during the day, especially in winter, because it helps you find people hiding in white clothing in the snow that are difficult to see with an optical camera.”

He added: “And when someone is trying to hide in a field or a wooded area, the thermal camera gives you a really good chance of finding them.”

The high demand for pilots and the increasing danger on the front lines has also led to innovations in training. Drone Fight Club founded Ukraine Fight Drone Simulator, which allows pilots to gain realistic experience from hundreds of kilometers away from the front line.

The academy developed two versions of the software; one a simplified version available to players on Steam for a reasonable fee, and a limited, military-grade iteration provided only to the Ukrainian armed forces to ensure that it could not be used for other purposes by the Russian military to train its own pilots.

The Telegraph was given access to a military version of the software, which Mr Plaksin said was used by 15,000 pilots at Drone Fight Club’s office in Kiev to accumulate more than 500,000 hours of training in total.

On the screen, we are armed with a tactical bomber and speeding towards Snake Island, a small bulge in the Black Sea near the Danube Delta; Here, in an episode that has entered wartime folklore in 2022, “the Russian battleship went and fucked itself,” as Mr. Plaksin put it.

The exercise proves to be impervious to beginner’s luck. My efforts to guide the drone through a series of training hoops towards its target are a far cry from the smooth FPV footage I’m used to seeing on social media feeds.

Eventually, Mr. Plaksin is forced to intervene, deftly guiding Lucky Strike through the obstacle course with a few fluid strokes and neatly positioning him atop a Russian logistics vehicle marked with the militaristic symbol Z.

“You can bomb now,” he said politely and left me to turn the switch that sent the drone’s payload onto the truck. We watch as the hyper-realistic vehicle suddenly bursts into flames, sending moving smoke into the air.

The evolving logic of warfare has made drone operators high-value targets systematically hunted by Russian forces. Chief among them is Rubikon, a formidable unit that attracts the country’s leading technical experts to track down and eliminate Ukrainian pilots.

Mr. Plaksin said: “When the war started, the Russians’ primary targets were the artillery forces because they caused the most damage to the army. Now FPV operators have this medal.”

According to Chief of General Staff Oleksandr Syrskyi, in March Ukrainian armed forces hit 151,207 targets with unmanned aerial vehicles; This figure increased by 50 percent compared to February.

Mr. Plaksin said: “I think 95 percent of countries don’t understand this because they still think the same way.”

The result of this gear shift was a fast-paced race between the two sides for drone superiority on the battlefield.

Last week, the Institute for the Study of War announced that Ukraine had gained a “drone advantage over Russian forces.”

Mr. Plaksin said it was of little use to compare two sides that were asymmetrical in terms of resources, manpower and development.

“Imagine two guys running. One has huge, long legs, and the other has been training harder. But they’re both running at the same pace for different reasons,” he said.

His long-term assessment was more serious, adding: “We educate [the Russians].

“We give them a good sparring partner who trains them to intercept different types of drones. And they are becoming more and more professional. So it will be very easy to attack other European countries.”

“Because they have this knowledge.”

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