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News Article :-
Two Ukrainian soldiers huddle around a drone controller in darkness, their faces illuminated only by its screen.
“Oh, something is burning,” one says. They’ve just dropped a bomb on a Russian target.
The night-time assault is part of a coordinated Ukrainian offensive push near the beleaguered eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, to which CNN obtained exclusive access.
“We will be hitting their first line and our guys will be advancing on the enemy,” says one of the drone pilots, who goes by his call sign “Groove.”
Ukrainian ground troops are equipped with Western night-vision equipment and have an advantage in night-time operations, but Kyiv’s ground attack aircraft are not suited for the dark, so this drone unit nicknamed “Code 9.2” is stepping up.
“The drones see in the night like in daylight,” ‘Groove explains. “We see the infantry, we hit the vehicles, cannons, everything we need to destroy.”
They are using Ukrainian-made ‘Vampire’ unmanned aerial vehicles, a hexacopter procured by the government in Kyiv, part of an initiative led by the Ministry for Digital Transformation to supply Ukrainian forces with technology on the battlefield.
“Each drone is equipped with a thermal imager, so it can operate effectively at night. They can carry up to 15 kilograms [33 pounds] of payload,” Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov said in a Telegram video last August, as he announced 270 of these machines would be sent to the front lines.
“The military will use them to destroy both armored cars and tanks, as well as enemy defense structures, fortifications, or ammunition depots.”
That’s what Groove and his unit have been doing.
Videos recorded using the night-vision cameras on their drones and given to CNN show the drones dropping bombs on several Russian armored vehicles, including a recent attack which destroyed a modern Russian T-90 tank – one of the newer and more advanced models Russia is fielding in Ukraine.
“Sometimes there are a lot of them,” Groove says, searching the area with his drone, trying to scope out Russian forces. They chase a few Russian vehicles, dropping bombs on them as they go.
“At the moment we don’t see many. There was some vehicle there but we didn’t hit it,” he adds.
As the drone attack picks up pace, other units join the battlefield: powerful artillery makes itself heard, showering the moonlit Russian positions with US-donated cluster munitions at a fast pace.
Grad multiple launch rocket systems fill the sky with their rapid hissing projectiles, mortar units join in, zeroing in on Moscow’s armies with the help of flares, and infantry fighting vehicles race to the front to storm Russian lines.
It’s a comprehensive assault and, at their headquarters, Code 9.2 commander call sign ‘Flint’ says this operation has been weeks in the making.
“We’ve been settin
