Hero of Ukraine Tymofii Orel, Kyiv resident: "Until 2022, I was civilian, making music videos and films. Now, I destroy Russian equipment using UAVs"

Tymofii met the full-scale invasion in Kyiv and immediately joined the Kyiv Territorial Defense Battalion. Near Brovary, Baryshivka, Irpin, Hostomel, and Bucha, he and his comrades did everything that was needed at the time—fighting, evacuating civilians, and more. When the Russians were driven out of the Kyiv region, he planned to join his comrades in the Svoboda (Freedom) Battalion, but his godfather suggested mobilizing to the 47th Brigade, where he was already serving. Tymofii decided to join the new unit, which was clearly being prepared for high-risk missions.

We spoke with Tymofii in October, a few weeks after he received the highest state award. This happened in Sumy, where the brigade is currently operating. For security reasons, we do not publish photos of this soldier—only the results of his work.

"DURING MY FIRST SORTIE… I GOT LOST."

- "I joined the infantry as a rifleman," says Tymofii, "and later I was offered a chance to work with drones. This field was just beginning to develop. I was not only interested, but I also had experience working with Mavics—I had dealt with them in my film work. So I accepted the offer. I also trained myself to become an FPV operator—I bought a remote control, downloaded the necessary software, and started learning. A friend of mine, who shot music videos, later asked me to teach him.

I remember my first sortie. I had studied the entire route on the map, prepared for the mission, and then, out of nowhere, I was told: ‘Fly in the other direction’… And I got lost. In short, I flew the wrong way. I used to do orienteering. When you navigate on foot, everything is at eye level—you get used to that perspective. But with drones, it’s completely different. To fly, you have to rewire your brain. Now, for example, if you show me a live stream of an area I know well, like near Pokrovsk, I can recognize the location just by a single frame showing burned-out equipment.

- Was it obvious to you that unmanned systems would play a major role?

- When the Bairaktars and Mavics started operating, it was already clear that this would bring a significant technological leap in the war. I didn’t initially focus on FPV drones, but when I saw one of these kamikaze drones fly straight into a trench or a dugout, I realized that, for me, this is the most terrifying weapon so far. A tank and an FPV drone.

- Not GABs (guided aerial bombs)?

- No. You can hear the GAB. The bombs fell next to us, 40 metres away. You are shell-shocked, and what kind of shell shock depends on the type of bomb. In this case, there are almost no fragments, the blast wave works more. But a tank is scary.

We were targeted by FPV drones back in Zaporizhzhia—two of them even flew at our dugout. We had guys from the 3rd SOF Regiment working with us, also using FPVs, but theirs were "return to home". They used analog communication—"sent a gift", and the bomber would come back. You could only operate at ultra-low altitudes. The power settings on these drones were switched, and frequencies were masked to prevent interception. These bombers could return after flying up to 30 kilometers. We were operating from liberated positions. The enemy knew these positions well because they had occupied them for a long time. That’s how they spotted us and hit us.

At first, we were all firing from a small trench, facing their direction. Then they struck back. We were left on a tiny patch of ground with nowhere to hide. We were waiting for the third UAV because if I had been operating, they would have launched a third time. And they flew in for the third time, but for some reason, they couldn't fly into our dugout, they missed. It was in the afternoon. We stayed put until nightfall—motionless, not making a sound. Starlink communication was jammed, the radio was dead… At night, we finally managed to get out. The next day, we found a video on a Russian Telegram channel showing how they had targeted us. They even captioned it, claiming they had ‘wiped out our group’…

- How did you manage to survive when two FPVs flew straight into the dugout?

- I was glad they had homemade devices. They were illiterately made. There was too much blast action and not enough fragmentation.

- Luckily...

-  Yes, fortunately. We sealed the openings of the dugout with whatever we could. The door was blown off but we got lucky—the FPV hit right above a backpack... Anyway, there were three minutes between the first and second FPV strikes. When the dust settled after the first one, we didn’t immediately understand what had happened. The door to the dugout had been blown open, so we shut it and at the same time threw out a backpack full of ammo—there was a lot of our stuff in there. I told the guys we were operating with, 'Get that backpack out of here.' They tossed it under the door. By then, I could already hear the FPV incoming, and I knew there was no time. We hid in the dugout. And the FPV slammed right above that backpack. I had an expectation that everything would fail. If it had, we’d have had a tough row to hoe. But we got lucky—really lucky—that our ammo didn’t detonate.

- As soon as all this started being used, troops learned to protect their equipment by any means necessary…

- We saw that firsthand when we moved toward Avdiivka. That was the first time I saw vehicles with ‘grills’—a few tanks rolled out covered in welded cages. But it wasn’t widespread yet. Maybe one percent of all vehicles had those ‘grills.’ They didn’t have electronic warfare (EW) systems either—at that point, those were still stationary installations. But by October 19, when they launched their massive offensive, some of their vehicles were equipped with EW systems, and almost all of them had those ‘grills.’

On video: Destroyed Russian T-90 tank "Proryv" ("Breakthrough")

- How did you know where to aim to inflict the greatest damage on enemy vehicles?

-  I would open Google, type in the Russian nomenclature, enter the vehicle’s name, and look at its schematics to understand where to hit. The first vehicle I took out, as far as I remember, was either a BMD-2 or BMD-3—an armored assault vehicle (AAV). I hit it. It was already pulling back, the Russians had fired their shots and were retreating. I lost the video feed due to the radio horizon (back then, we weren’t using airborne repeaters), so I lost sight of it after it passed the forest plantation. But I could still guide the FPV by feel—even without video, it only had about four or five meters left. Then we checked: direct hit. But AAV kept moving. It was smoking but managed to drive another two kilometers before stopping—and then it detonated. We just screamed with excitement—it was our first confirmed vehicle destruction. The enemy had been avoiding going past a hill, knowing we couldn’t reach them beyond the radio horizon. But this one did, and we destroyed it. After that, we started targeting tanks—we took out a T-90 'Proryv' with an FPV drone. But overall, not much enemy equipment was destroyed near Avdiivka—maybe 10 to 15 units in total.

On video: The moment of destruction of the Russian tank "Proryv"

- Isn't that a lot?!

- Not really! In Pokrovsk, we destroyed 30 vehicles in just one month. We were defending Stepove. Winter had just started. It would get light late, and nights were freezing. In the morning, the sun would rise, causing evaporation, making the drone cameras fog up and freeze. How do you operate in conditions like that? We knew what we were up against. And yet, every morning, they launched offensives. Four or five vehicles would roll out. Same thing in the evenings. But we still managed to hit them effectively. That’s why we wiped out so much enemy armor in the Pokrovsk direction.

On the video: This T-72 did not even reach the front line and did not fire a single shot

- There, you also modified the equipment, adopted antennas and relay stations...

- Yes, we did. But then the Russians started using EW systems, so we had to switch to different frequencies. Before that, everyone was flying on standard frequencies—no one really thought about it. But then their EW-equipped vehicles showed up, and we were like, 'Whoa! Okay, how do we reprogram our drones?' So we started digging into it. Because once an EW system kicks in, we can still take off, but we can’t get close to any vehicle with a signal jammer. The moment we get within 50 to 100 meters, we lose control, and the drone just drops. That’s when our cat-and-mouse game began. Both sides constantly trying to outsmart each other.

Then they started hunting down pilots. Once drones became widespread, the Russians figured out that FPV pilots were the number one target. No disrespect to the infantry—I have immense respect for them, and I started out there myself—nor to any other units, but the reality is that almost 90% of enemy equipment was taken out by FPV drones. If we didn’t have FPVs, I honestly think we would have lost this war.

In the video: This tank had moved into a firing position behind enemy lines. It was destroyed with an instant detonation of its ammunition that was inside. Later, soldiers from the 47th Brigade found footage of the spectacle from the enemy’s perspective.)

- What’s the highest number of FPVs you’ve used in a single day?

- 66. On October 19, we took out 19 vehicles. And later, in the summer, when we lost Stepove, Berdychi, and Ocheretyne, we destroyed ten vehicles in a single day. After that, we never reached those numbers again.

- In the Kursk region, where you're operating now, do you see as much enemy equipment?

- Not much moves around here; it only appears out from time to time. There are vast forests where they stockpile their equipment. Some days they appear, but my crew, for instance, is off duty. It`s hard in terms of frequencies. They're fighting us very intelligently in this direction. Their EW systems are highly effective, and they execute their operations with precision. Previously, we could take standard communication modules and shift frequencies up or down by 300 MHz through firmware modifications, but that no longer works here. Almost all channels are blocked, and we’re racking our brains to find a workaround.

"THE NUMBER OF DRONE OPERATORS SHOULD NOT INCREASE AT THE EXPENSE OF INFANTRY, ARTILLERY, OR TANK CREWS."

- They say FPV goggles affect eyesight. How long can you wear them? And how many hours do you usually work?

- There were times I barely took them off all day. That happened during 66 sorties. I took them off, checked the stream—everything looked fine—so we kept flying. We took off again immediately.

- How long does it take to get used to this? Do your eyes suffer a lot?

- The vestibular system takes more of a hit. Some people just aren’t built for this—they put on the goggles and immediately feel nauseous, unable to do anything. But I was fine, I put them on and didn’t feel dizzy at all. I’m not sure how much it affects eyesight, but mine has deteriorated significantly—I can feel it. The enemy’s manuals state that every FPV pilot and unit must rest for a day or two after a shift. They have the manpower and resources for that—we don’t. We’re short on personnel.

- And, of course, a shortage of crews as well.

- Exactly. There are more of them, less of us. We need to fight this by spending more time in positions, with some new developments to bypass their electronic warfare. 

- Are there any high-quality training programs teaching civilians how to operate drones?

- I have friends who are involved in this. I know a few schools that train civilians as well. I went through one myself as a civilian before signing my contract with the Armed Forces. In those, you pay as a civilian. There are also other schools that operate purely on a volunteer basis and are completely free. In my opinion, this should have been done earlier—back in 2022-23. But at least now, they’ve made a real effort to develop it. However, I see that many people believe FPV drones alone can win this war. Personally, I don’t think so. They help make defense more effective, but… there’s no magic here—only standard frequencies. It’s just like radio communication: if it’s jammed, you lose connection. The same goes for FPV drones. There aren’t that many frequencies to maneuver or hide on. If you get jammed on one, you switch to another. But enemy EW systems generate harmonic interference, and those waves interpolate your frequency. If you’re too far away or your transmitter power is too low, they can disrupt you across entirely different frequencies. And you can never fully shield your equipment across all frequencies. Regulations prohibit placing antennas with different frequencies too close together—otherwise, signal integrity is lost, along with clear transmission boundaries, and so on. There are technical limitations. You can’t cheat physics.

- So how do we win the war, then?

- You win a war by truly wanting to. By being determined, by building a solid defense, and by conducting smart foreign policy. I’m not an expert in that, but that’s my opinion.

- But not FPV, not new technologies, as some say?

- There was a time when everyone wanted to become a drone operator. The Americans came to us and said: "We have an idea: to make 70 per cent of the Armed Forces drone operators, and leave 30 per cent for infantry and everyone else." This is not how it works. Infantry is always needed. You always need people in the trenches. Unfortunately, no drones will work without them. Because drone operators do something else. When drones engage in a small arms battle, they are already the same infantryman. But still. We need more drone operators. But their number should not increase by reducing the number of infantrymen, artillerymen, tankers, and so on.

Sometimes, in some areas, where the line of battle contact is unstable, there are gaps in the defence, in positions where the distance between observation posts is 500 metres to a kilometre, the enemy can easily enter. There are also breakthroughs. For example, in the Kursk direction, we once had adjacent units and drone operators checking out our positions. The enemy made a breakthrough with armoured vehicles, and they reached the forest where the drone operators stopped to see the front line...

There are quite a few such stories. But still: flying is safer than infantry work. But don't imagine that it is as safe as possible: you sit in a warm dugout, drink coffee... You still go to your position. And now, going to the position means logistics routes that are also controlled by enemy FPVs. Some people have an EW, some don't - the EW is broken, you hit the antenna somewhere, the module burned out, or they operate on other frequencies because you can't have all the frequencies. At one point, several FPV drones targeted at us in the Pokrovsk direction but the EW system on our vehicle helped us. Basically, it's dangerous everywhere.

- Kyiv is also dangerous...

- Yes. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

The Pokrovsk direction was convenient because we spent almost a year there - from the end of October 2023 to August 2024. We already knew everything there. We knew every forest plantation, every field. We understood how they moved, studied their logistics routes. We knew what kind of EW systems they use against drones, what kind of equipment they use against vehicles. This is a completely new direction. Firstly, this is not our territory - it is the enemy's territory, we are not at home here.

- How do you feel about this?

- This is an interesting crazy attempt. In my opinion, we should have stopped in time. In Pokrovsk, they were driving a wedge into our lines. But here, we have driven a wedge, and they have us nearly surrounded on 270 degrees. Enemy SRGs (sabotage and reconnaissance groups) cross the border here—there are plenty of videos showing how their special forces operate. Once you move in, there’s no communication. Radio comms here are terrible. Starlink works within five to ten kilometers from the border, you can pull it closer. And then it was over...

One of the reasons we’ve managed to hold out for so long is that their "system" is bigger than ours. And all the issues we face in our "system "exist in theirs as well. But because their system is larger, those problems cause even greater losses for them than for us. If they didn’t suffer from the same inefficiencies we do, things would be much tougher. For that, I sincerely thank the Soviet legacy.

- What are you personally most proud of? Any particular enemy equipment you've destroyed?

- I take more pride in the fact that we prevent enemy vehicles from reaching our positions in the first place. We operate at close distance to the front lines, and as soon as we detect movement five to ten kilometers away, we can launch three sorties before they get anywhere near us. For example, a T-80BVM tank didn’t even get the chance to fire a shot in our direction before we took it out.

"SOMETIMES YOU GET THE FEELING THAT NOT ALL PEOPLE IN OUR COUNTRY ARE INTERESTED IN VICTORY"

- When the development of FPVs first started, when everyone saw how effective they were, people were actively raising money for them. Now do you feel that there are fewer FPVs? Where do you get them - does the team supply them or do volunteers?

- Mostly volunteers. People like Serhii Sternenko and others are helping. Fewer FPVs? I wouldn’t say so. But we definitely need more. What worries me isn’t the quantity—I really don’t like our bureaucracy. For example, FPV developers provided us with non-standard frequencies, but then an assault was launched with five vehicles—and every single one had EW systems already operating on those exact frequencies. We understand what kind of EW this is. I find suppliers for other frequencies, we order them, I test everything—it works perfectly. So I say, ‘I need drones on these new frequencies.’ But since the deliveries go through the government, they have to go through accreditation and certification, which takes at least three months.

- By then, the frequencies have changed again…

- Exactly. Those frequencies are already obsolete, they don’t work anymore, and we need new ones. But we’re still getting drones set to the old ones.

- So everything has to be ready as soon as possible?

- The enemy faces similar issues. But we could solve this easily: make a deal with the government so that drone manufacturers supply UAVs pre-configured to the required frequencies, and within a week, everything is deployed to the front. The manufacturer, roughly speaking, just signs a document stating that accreditation is in progress and must be completed by a certain deadline.  If we did that, it would be perfect. But sometimes, you get the feeling that not everyone is actually interested in victory.

- Who nominated you for the Hero of Ukraine? Did you know about it?

- I didn't know. In May, our unit destroyed about 60 pieces of equipment with just two crews. Our crew was responsible for most of these hits. After that, they said someone wanted to do something. They asked about our statistics, but I didn't know why they needed the data. Then I got a call from the General Staff saying they were waiting for me at the Ministry of Defence for an awarding ceremony. They started asking where I was. But I don’t like sharing my location with anyone. They asked, "Are you at your PDS (permanent duty station) or in Kyiv?" I said, "I can be both here and there." I didn’t understand why they were asking me all this. Later, I found out it was for an award. They were going to give me the title of Hero of Ukraine. It was a big surprise. I didn't expect it at all.

I've never sought awards. Does it change anything? No. If I get it, I get it. If not, then not. That’s not why I’m here.

- How many people are in your crew?

- There are five of us: the FPV pilot, the reconnaissance drone pilot, the person launching the FPV drone, the person maintaining the Mavic—launching it, swapping flash drives and batteries—and the navigator, who deploys the relay stations. You can manage with three or four people, but five is ideal.

- You haven't mentioned the elimination of enemy personnel using FPVs .

- There are just as many of them as there is equipment.

On video: Work on the infantry

- Do you just not count it or is it unpleasant for you? Is technology the best target?

- Military weapons and technical equipment can inflict more damage on our infantry. That makes it a higher-priority target. But we don’t spare enemy infantry either. If we spot an infantryman, we fly out even for a single one. He is a threat as well and must be eliminated. Absolutely anything hostile that moves is destroyed.

- Well, artillery doesn’t move. Do you have any confirmed destructions?

- We’ve destroyed 12 self-propelled guns and several cannons—up to ten pieces. This is documented in the report. It states that from the beginning of 2024 until the end of May, my crew destroyed 138 or 148 enemy vehicles.

On the video: Destruction of the self-propelled gun, which was firing at our positions at the time

- How many times have you been on leave or back home since February 2022?

- I had two leaves. When I was in the Territorial Defense Forces (Territorial Defence Forces), we were allowed to go home because it wasn’t the regular Armed Forces—there were different rules.

- What I mean is, how exhausted are you from the war? And how much longer do you think you can keep going? How much strength do you have left?

- Every time, I find something to hold on to—a bit of hope, some kind of motivation. Of course, over time, in certain moments, that motivation fades, even disappears. But there’s always something that keeps me going.

- What are those things? What keeps you holding on? What gives you that strength?

- First of all, the team I’m with here. I really like them. It feels like a big family. Of course, there are arguments—that’s normal. The team, and Ukraine—not just as a state, but as a country.

- What is "above all" in this sense?

- It’s not that it’s above everything else. It’s just that this is my home. I love this country, I love its landscapes—mountains, fields, steppes. And the people. I understand that infantry is the backbone. As long as they hold the line, we keep fighting. We need to protect every soldier, and we will.

- So, for you, the priority is protecting the infantry first and eliminating the enemy second?

- It’s a double-edged sword: you destroy the enemy, and they don’t reach the infantry, they don’t fire on them. I spend less time at the front lines than the infantry. We come in, then pull back, we can step away from forest plantation, stretch our legs, or move to safer areas. But for the infantry—it’s brutal…

Violetta Kirtoka, Censor. NET