Denys Petrov, Chief Sergeant of Unmanned Systems Platoon: "It is currently very challenging to deploy infantry into position. It’s much better to do so with "eyes" from above

But he was persistent. He says he really wanted to defend his native Kharkiv region. That's where he started his service in a rifle battalion. Later he started working with drones. He had to gain practical experience in combat conditions, fighting for Klishchiivka and in the forest near Kreminna.

That's why we talked to Denys Petrov, Chief Sergeant of the Unmanned Systems Platoon of the 5th Slobozhanska Brigade of the NGU, about the peculiarities of flying in the forest, the most effective drones, interaction with other units and the motivation of those who are now afraid of mobilization.

– Recently, conscripts and reservists-volunteer fighters can choose a military unit to serve in without going to the territorial centers for recruitment and social support. The system of transferring between units has also been simplified. If someone wants to serve in a unit that works with drones, what should they take into account? Are there any special selection criteria?

– I can't speak for all units, only for our unmanned systems platoon. We talk to everyone who wants to serve with us personally to understand whether the person is really motivated. Since there are no unified standards, as most people have neither experience nor skills, we understand that people need to be trained. Therefore, the main thing is interest. At the first meeting, we ask basic questions, the answers to which can be found on the Internet. And at the second meeting, we repeat them. And if we see that a person has not wasted time between meetings but has studied all this, then we can work with that person.

– Some people think that there is no place for persons of a humanities bent there, only for math and science guys. Do you think so too?

– This is nonsense. I repeat that the main thing is interest. Even if a person's hands tremble at the controls at first, he or she can still develop flying skills over time. If there is no interest, nothing will be achieved.

– How old were you when you went to serve?

– I was 18 years old. When the full-scale war started, at first people were in shock because no one knew what to do. For the first four days, everyone was running around to the stores that hadn't closed yet, buying whatever they could. I was running around too. And when on the fourth day there was information that military commissariats were starting to recruit people for the Armed Forces, I went to one of them.

I got there and there was a line of five men outside. The guy in front of me was asked: "Did you serve?" He answered that he had not served. But they took him anyway. I approached the military commissariat officer. He looked at my passport and asked me how old I was. He heard that I was 18 and said: "We do not take those who have not served before." I asked: "How is that? They took the guy in front of me." But he stood his ground. That's why my trip to the military enlistment office was unsuccessful.

– But you tried again, right?

– My mother lived in Kharkiv, in the Saltivka neighborhood. There were already hostilities there, there was constant shelling. We had to leave. But my mother set a condition that she would not leave without me. So we went to Lviv together. There we were given a room in a dormitory.

But I realized that I still had to serve. That is, either go to the military commissariat in Lviv or return to Kharkiv and try to mobilize again. I thought that if I went to Lviv, I would not know where I would be sent. So I decided to go home to Kharkiv. I felt that I had to be there.

– How did your mom react?

–  I told her I was going for a walk. And I left. When I was on my way to Kharkiv, she called me and asked where I was. I told her I was going to Kharkiv to volunteer there. It was not an easy conversation.

– What happened next?

– A week later, my friend and I went to try again. This time we were enlisted. At least then there were enough volunteer fighters.

Those who had previously served and had experience were sent to the Armed Forces. My friend and I spent another month in the training center. Then, as part of a National Guard unit, we went to the outskirts of Balakliia. And we were stationed there for more than three months near the cement plant. The intensity of the fighting there was not the same as later.

In addition, what made this rotation unique was that people were actively fleeing the occupied territories, traveling on the highway where we were positioned. The checkpoints had massive queues.

We tried to get them through as quickly as possible since this often happened under fire, and there were children in the cars.

– Were there people who went to the occupied territories?

–  Not many, but there were. There were also those who tried to "make money" on the war. They went to our side, bought sausages and meat, because these goods were cheaper here. And then they took it to the occupied territories and sold it to the occupiers.

– Did you stop them?

– Yes, we did. But all we could do legally was check their documents to confirm they were registered as individual entrepreneurs and paying taxes.

Now it is impossible to imagine this. As well as the conditions that existed then. There was a shower, a kitchen, and normal transportation at the position. There were also fewer strikes. Now they can happen around the clock.

– What happened after Balakliia?

– Rotation and then a counter-offensive in the Kharkiv region. We took part in the liberation of Kupiansk. Then we went to the forest near Kreminna. At that time, we were under the command of the 95th Brigade.

–  Did you start working with drones right away?

– No, I was a shooter at first. Although I started my drone career in Balakliia, I flew a little bit there. Comparing that time to what’s happening now, a lot has changed. Back then, we could fly using satellites, and no one had heard of remote antennas. These were, roughly speaking, civilian flights. The main goal was simply to get as high up as possible.

At the time, I was in the infantry, and I was flying "part-time". I started working full-time in Kreminna. We were allocated our own sector, which was quite large for a rifle battalion, with small arms and at least mortars and artillery.

We held that position until February. On February 1, a massive assault began. They stormed our positions, driving APCs with tank support. Artillery, infantry—everything they could throw at us, they did.

Some positions were under more pressure, some were under less pressure. Some positions were withdrawn, some were not withdrawn to the last.

Our infantry rolled back to where we were flying from. In general, it is very difficult to fly in the forest. We had to look for a place somewhere higher, or a clearing. My comrade and I drove around that forest for about a week after the infantry rolled back.

– What do you mean by drive around?

– The infantry was about three hundred meters ahead, we would arrive by car, quickly jump out, start reconnaissance, and then the enemy would start shooting at us. We landed the drone, packed it up, and moved another 300-350 meters to the side. We arrived, turned around, and started working again. And as soon as they started shooting at us, we would drive back to where we had come from. That’s how those trips went.

At that time, the 95th Brigade provided our battalion with artillery support. We had to adjust it. And we knew where our old positions were, which had been taken by the orcs.

– Did you drive with a comrade-in-arms?

- Usually, we had a driver with us. But one day, I suggested he take a break. I got behind the wheel myself because my comrade didn’t know how to drive yet.

At first, we fired at one tank. Then another one showed up. I started adjusting for it. And then I saw on the console that the shell was coming out of the muzzle, and a few seconds later, there was a hit right behind me.

I was thrown back a few meters. After a while, I regained consciousness. My comrade began examining me.

At that moment, I hadn’t realized I was wounded. I thought I had just been hit by the blast wave. Then my comrade said, "Denys, there's a hole in your pants." It was on my left side.

We knew we had to get out of there. I got back behind the wheel, and he was walking behind me. And at that moment, there were about five hits right in front of the car. Shattered glass rained down into the cabin.

I prayed that the car would start - and fortunately, it did.

Under normal circumstances, I would have taken more time to get out of there, but with adrenaline pumping, it all happened very quickly. We arrived at the command-and-observation post, and the medic asked, "Who's WIA?" He couldn’t believe that I had been driving while wounded.

I was told I would have to go to the hospital. But then I remembered that I had left my phone at the position. I told my comrade that we needed to go back for it. He agreed because aside from the phone, we had left some other equipment behind.

We had to get to the hospital on our own, and that decision was made because we had the car.

– Were you driving again?

– Yes. I drove halfway normally, but then my leg started to go numb, and I couldn't fully press the clutch. My comrade said, "Let me try."

– Extreme driving courses. Did he get you there in the end?

– He did, though not without incident. On the way, we were shelled a few more times. Then they started sending me from one hospital to another. The first was in Lyman. They gave me first aid and said I needed to be taken further. They took me to Kramatorsk. There, I was examined the same day, but they told me there was nothing more they could do. So, they took me to Dobropillia.

I had been limping all this time, but I could still walk. One of the doctors said, "He doesn't seem to be limping convincingly." Apparently, that’s why I was the last to be admitted. They examined the wound and sent me to another room. They sat me down on a chair, tied me up, and injected me with something. I woke up the next morning, and from that moment on, I couldn’t walk. They sent me to a hospital in Dnipro, then to Uman, where I stayed for almost a month. It turned out that the shrapnel had pierced my intestine.

– When you came to the east last year, where did you manage to fight?

–  First, it was Klishchiivka. We were under the command of the 80th Brigade. Then there were both our assaults and the Russians' assaults.

–  At that time, the news reported intense fighting.

– When we recaptured the last two streets, we overheard in the intercepts that their soldiers, who had been sent to assault, were already refusing to go. They had been lied to, told they weren't going to assault but just to replace those on the frontlines. From above, it looked like 10 Russian soldiers were advancing. We could see them from afar. We registered the fire. They reached it, and our guys killed the group. About 100 meters away, another group would come. They would step over the bodies of their fallen comrades and keep moving. And they were also being " hit". This could go on the entire day.

They were walking in some kind of a state... Imagine, a hit lands just a few meters from them, but they don't stop—they just keep walking. I don't know if it was some kind of drugs or something else, but it looked strange.

It was during the battles for Klishchiivka that I gained a lot of experience and learned how to work better with drones.

–  Were there any situations that were particularly memorable?

–  A pickup truck was destroyed with ATGM near my position.  I had to carry out a soldier whose arm had been torn off. The three of us carried him for about 5 kilometers. It was extremely hard.

As for work, this was truly an important period for me, and I learned a lot of nuances about working with drones. For instance, it was there that we started using remote antennas. Before that, we were operating in the open air, controlling flights. We couldn’t take cover in the dugouts because there was a risk of losing the UAV. And they were very difficult to get to.

With the remote antennas, we could work from shelters. We began "carouseling"—this is when one drone returns, and another one takes its place. Meanwhile, the stream remains uninterrupted. We organized everything so that everything in our sector is visible, regardless of the time of day or weather. The situation needs to be clear in order to make decisions.

We stayed in Klishchiivka until the beginning of winter. While our infantry rested, we were tasked with working in the northern part of the Kharkiv region. We even flew into enemy territory.

After the constant fighting before that, it almost felt like a break.

– How did the Russians react to our drones?

- In the Klishchiivka area, they tried to hide when they heard the drone, but here, they called their comrades to show off to show what a cool thing was flying. We "taught" them that they shouldn’t do that—with payload drops and adjustments. They stopped doing it. Then anti-drone guns appeared.

– How long did you stay there?

– Until the enemy began to enter the Kharkiv region again. We were flying in the Strileche area. And it was clear that the enemy had become more active, preparing something. GABs started flying, artillery was working actively. Then the offensive began.

– You perform different tasks: both aerial reconnaissance and artillery adjustment, am I right? Which do you consider the most effective?

– Yes, the range of tasks is wide. I've been working with drones for most of my career and I can say from my own experience that Mavic is the foundation of today's warfare. For example, let's take artillery. Artillerymen need to see where to shoot. Otherwise, artillery loses its effectiveness. Thanks to drones, targets are reached as accurately as possible.

Or, let's say, another task is to deploy infantry into position. It is very difficult to deploy infantry to a position now. And it is better to do it with "eyes" from above. To spot in time if there is an ambush or if there are any mines.

Moreover, the infantry often doesn’t know exactly where they’re going, and there are people in the group who have never been to the position. Now they have walkie-talkies and we tell them where to turn and when, so as to avoid running into the enemy, where there is a shelter to wait it out. When we accompany them, it is much safer for the guys.

Reconnaissance is equally important. And the Mavic is the best tool for reconnaissance. It’s also very durable. It has withstood impacts with trees and falls from 10 meters. We’ve found Mavics burned in fields, but they still worked. They’re very reliable. And nothing has replaced them yet.

– The military says that there are so many fpv drones on the frontline that it is impossible to hide from them.

–  It's not about quantity. The occupiers are constantly changing frequencies, reducing them as much as possible. And each frequency requires an electronic warfare system. Not every brigade has such capabilities.

It is good that we are developing the production of drones, but we also need to develop the production of electronic warfare.

– When you conduct aerial reconnaissance, can the enemy's drones see you too? Is there any way to protect yourself?

–There are some precautionary measures. But they will only delay the moment when you are found.

We know where they are coming from, and they know where we are coming from. That is why we cannot stay in one place for long. They spot our dugouts, and we spot theirs.

There are situations when Russians mine the roads by dropping anti-personnel petal mines from conventional Mavics. They also dropped them on our dugout. I went to collect them.

– There is a critical shortage of people at the front. And there is no one to replace those who joined the army like you at the beginning of the Russian invasion. What do you think you can say to the guys who are afraid to serve to motivate them?

– The biggest motivation is the same as it was and remains. If you don't go, the occupiers will come to you.

Of course, we could motivate them with money, as the enemy does. In other words, to pay at the time of signing the contract. But, as for me, this is a short-term motivation. And when a person is in combat and everything is flying at him, he will think about money the least of all. So it should be the same motivation we had at the beginning.

We have no time to sit on our sofas and talk about how bad things are on social media. First, come to find out how it really is. Secondly, if you are not satisfied with something, fix it. This is our common country, and we have to hold it together.

Tetiana Bodnia, Censor.NET