Drones have played a different role in the war in Ukraine, used in defense and in showing the destruction.
In better times, Ukrainian drone enthusiasts flew their gadgets into the sky to photograph weddings, fertilize soybean fields or race other drones for fun.
Now some are risking their lives by forming a volunteer drone force to help their country repel the Russian invasion.
“Kyiv needs you and your drone at this moment of fury!” read a Facebook post late last week from the Ukrainian military, calling for citizens to donate hobby drones and to volunteer as experienced pilots to operate them.
One entrepreneur who runs a retail store selling consumer drones in the capital said its entire stock of some 300 drones made by Chinese company DJI has been dispersed for the cause. Others are working to get more drones across the border from friends and colleagues in Poland and elsewhere in Europe.
“Why are we doing this? We have no other choice. This is our land, our home,” said Denys Sushko, head of operations at Kyiv-based industrial drone technology company DroneUA, which before the war was helping to provide drone services to farmers and energy companies.
Read the full story:
In better times, Ukrainian drone enthusiasts flew their gadgets into the sky to photograph weddings, fertilize soybean fields or race other drones for fun. Now some are risking their lives by forming a volunteer drone force to help their country repel the Russian invasion. "Kyiv needs you and your drone at this moment of fury!" read a Facebook post late last week from the Ukrainian military, calling for citizens to donate hobby drones and to volunteer as experienced pilots to operate them. One entrepreneur who runs a retail store selling consumer drones in the capital said its entire stock of some 300 drones has been dispersed for the cause. "And everybody just started to use those drones to find some enemies in our country, and it's helpful. And I know many examples where it saved the life of our Ukrainian people," said Taras Troiak, co-founder of Quadro.ua, a dealer of drones made by Chinese company DJI. Unlike the much larger Turkish-built combat drones that Ukraine has in its arsenal, off-the-shelf consumer drones like DJI's aren't much use as weapons — but they can be powerful reconnaissance tools. Troiak said civilians have been using the aerial cameras to track Russian convoys and then relay the images and GPS coordinates to Ukrainian troops. Some of the machines have night vision and heat sensors.
Formed in a fury to counter Russia’s blitzkrieg attack, Ukraine’s hundreds-strong volunteer “hacker” corps is much more than a paramilitary cyberattack force in Europe's first major war of the internet age. It is crucial to information combat and to crowdsourcing intelligence .
“We are really a swarm. A self-organizing swarm," said Roman Zakharov, a 37-year-old IT executive at the center of Ukraine's bootstrap digital army.
Inventions of the volunteer hackers range from software tools that let smartphone and computer owners anywhere participate in distributed denial-of-service attacks on official Russian websites to bots on the Telegram messaging platform that block disinformation, let people report Russian troop locations and offer instructions on assembling Molotov cocktails and basic first aid.
Read full story:
The weapons being used in the Russia-Ukraine war
Warplanes and missiles: Kalibr
Updated
The Russian military has used warplanes and Kalibr (Caliber) cruise missiles to hit facilities throughout the country.
The Kalibr is a precision weapon, but Ukrainian military facilities and government buildings apparently targeted by those missiles in Kyiv and Kharkiv are located close to residential areas, resulting in civilian casualties.
The same applies to missiles carried by Russian warplanes, which targeted military infrastructure in strikes that also involved collateral damage.
In this image provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service and released on Friday, June 23, 2017, long-range Kalibr cruise missiles are launched by a Russian Navy ship in the eastern Mediterranean.
Warplanes and missiles: Iskander
Updated
To hit key targets, the Russian military also has used Iskander missiles that have a range of up to 500 kilometers (around 300 miles) and carry a much more powerful warhead that can destroy big buildings and some fortified facilities. Some Iskander missiles were reportedly fired from the territory of Russian ally Belarus, which has served as a staging ground for the Russian invasion.
This undated file photo provided Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017, by Russian Defense Ministry official web site shows a Russian Iskander-K missile launched during a military exercise at a training ground at the Luzhsky Range, near St. Petersburg, Russia.
Rockets: Grad
Updated
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other officials have accused the Russian military of indiscriminately shelling residential buildings, schools and hospitals around the country.
Images from Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv that were verified by The Associated Press showed what appeared to be a barrage of Russian rockets hitting residential buildings in an attack that killed and wounded scores of civilians.
The Soviet-designed Grad (Hail), Smerch (Tornado) and Uragan (Hurricane) multiple rocket launchers are designed to fire a salvo of powerful rockets to destroy concentrations of troops or military equipment. Their use against populated areas inevitably causes heavy casualties and major damage to civilian infrastructure.
In this photo provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022. A Russian "Grad" missile launcher fires on the field taking part in a military drills in Murmansk region, Russia.
Rockets: Smerch and Uragan
Updated
Russian-made multiple rocket launchers "Smerch," front, and "Uragan", behind it, at a display on the first day of Moscow's International III Arms Exhibition in Moscow, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008.
Cluster munitions and thermobaric weapons
Updated
Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of using cluster munitions, accusations the Kremlin has denied.
Such weapons are designed to target enemy troops and weapons over a broad area, and their use in populated areas inevitably would lead to mass casualties among civilians.
Cluster bombs, rockets and artillery shells open in the air, releasing submunitions, or "bomblets," that are dispersed over a large area and simultaneously hit multiple targets.
Beyond the initial impact, bomblets have a high rate of failure to explode, posing a long-time threat of killing and maiming people for a long time after they were fired.
Thermobaric weapons consist of a fuel container and two separate explosive charges, with the first detonating to disperse the fuel particles and the second igniting the dispersed fuel and oxygen in the air, creating a blast wave of extreme pressure and heat that creates a partial vacuum in an enclosed space. That makes the weapon particularly deadly for people in an enclosed space.
The Pentagon has said that Russian mobile launchers for thermobaric weapons were spotted inside Ukraine, but couldn't confirm their use.
Activists and international delegations stand next to cluster bomb units, during a visit to a Lebanese military base in the southern town of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, Monday Sept. 12, 2011.
Russian rockets and artillery
Updated
The Russian military also has a wide range of powerful Soviet-designed artillery units, which were bizarrely named after flowers, such as self-propelled 203-mm Peony and 152-mm Hyacinth and Acacia self-propelled howitzers.
Moscow has claimed it was only targeting military bases and infrastructure, but the AP has documented massive damage to civilian infrastructure and residential areas in Kyiv, Kharkiv and numerous other cities and towns across Ukraine. Russian officials have alleged that Ukrainian forces have widely deployed heavy weapons in residential areas to use civilians as shields, a claim that couldn't be independently verified.
The U.N. human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, speaking at the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday, said "most civilian casualties were caused by the use of heavy artillery, multi-launch rocket systems and air strikes in populated areas, with concerning reports of use of cluster munitions striking civilian targets." She didn't specify which side may have used them.
FILE - In this photo taken from video and released by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, multiple rocket launchers fire during the Belarusian and Russian joint military drills at Brestsky firing range, Belarus.
Ukraine's arsenal: NLAW anti-tank missiles
Updated
The Ukrainian military has relied on the same assortment of Soviet-built multiple rocket launchers and howitzers that the Russian military has.
It doesn't possess sophisticated long-range precision weapons like Russia's Iskander ballistic missiles and Kalibr cruise missiles.
The Ukrainian military has Soviet-era Tochka-U short-range ballistic missiles, which have a powerful warhead but poor precision compared to the latest Russian weapons.
FILE - Ukrainian soldiers take part in an exercise for the use of NLAW anti-tank missiles at the Yavoriv military training ground, close to Lviv, western Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 28, 2022.
Ukraine's arsenal: US javelin missiles
Updated
In addition to its aging Soviet-made arsenals, Ukraine has received large shipments of Western weapons, such as U.S.-made Javelin anti-tank missiles and shoulder-launched Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. Ukrainian officials said the country's military has used them to inflict heavy casualties to the invading Russian forces.
FILE - In this image taken from footage provided by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry Press Service, a Ukrainian soldiers use a launcher with US Javelin missiles during military exercises in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022.
Ukraine's arsenal: Bayraktar TB2 drone
Updated
The Ukrainian military also has used Bayraktar drones supplied by Turkey before the conflict. It has released a video showing an attack by Bayraktar against a Russian military convoy.
FILE - A Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drone is seen during a rehearsal of a military parade dedicated to Independence Day in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 20, 2021.
Russian missiles: Iskander
Updated
In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, The Russian army's Iskander missile launchers take positions during drills in Russia.
Russian howitzers
Updated
FILE - In this image taken from video and released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, Russian army's self-propelled howitzers fire during military drills near Orenburg in the Urals, Russia, Dec. 16, 2021.
Russian howitzers
Updated
FILE - Russian 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV self-propelled howitzers roll toward Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, May 9, 2021, marking the 76th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.
Russian howitzers
Updated
FILE - In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Friday, Jan. 28, 2022, Russian troops fire howitzers during drills in the Rostov region during a military exercising at a training ground in Rostov region, Russia.
Russian self-propelled artillery
Updated
FILE - In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022, a self-propelled artillery mount fires at the Osipovichi training ground during the Union Courage-2022 Russia-Belarus military drills in Belarus.
Why ethical behavior matters even in the fog of war
UpdatedRussia's war on Ukraine: Nuke plant, corporate exodus and disinformation
Russia's war in Ukraine has lasted more than week. Here's a selection of stories that provide a deeper look at what's happening.
Russian troops Friday seized the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe after a middle-of-the-night attack that set it on fire and briefly raised worldwide fears of a catastrophe in the most chilling turn in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine yet.
Car factories idled, beer stopped flowing, furniture and fashion orders ceased, and energy companies fled oil and gas projects. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has thrown business plans into disarray.
Consumers facing higher prices for products made with corn and wheat could be in for more pain as global supplies grow tighter because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Episode 33: Richard Kyte and Scott Rada talk about why it matters how Ukrainians react to the violent incursion by Russia.
