Ukrainian army revamps commercial drones to attack Russian tanks

"Our team have done it many times. We've destroyed enemy tanks, heavy equipment and personnel. It is a very efficient gadget," the soldier who goes by the callsign Kakrurt, said in the Dnipropetrovsk region, located in central-east Ukraine.

Kakrurt fights for Ukraine's 35th Marine Brigade, which modifies commercially-available drones and uses them to attack Russian forces who are occupying swathes of Ukraine's east and south.

Reuters received two videos from the brigade showing drones flying over what they claimed were Russian trenches, before detonating.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2014, both Moscow and Kyiv have used drones extensively.

Ukraine announced that it will expand its drone programme to include both reconnaissance and the attack of enemy targets, in an effort to close the gap between their military capabilities and Russia.

The soldier stated that Ukraine has invested heavily in drone technology.

It's more efficient to use technical resources than people. "That's why Ukrainian Armed Forces develop very, very rapidly in this direction," said he.

The 35th Marine Brigade soldiers demonstrated small drones with four rotating rotors, which were controlled by soldiers via handsets.

"Our team decided to use civil drones and re-make to destroy the enemy." "They are easy to obtain, and easy to adapt to their purpose," Kakrurt stated.

A soldier with the call-sign Reshik predicted that Ukraine will use drones to fly directly to the target and then detonate them when it launches its counter-offensive, which is expected in the next few weeks.

He said that "Kamikaze Drones" would play a major role in the counteroffensive, attacking enemy trenches and killing them.

The first soldier claimed that the drones are not susceptible to Russian jamming system that uses satellites and that because they flew for such a brief period before exploding, radio electronic interference is also ineffective.

He said that "even for radio electronic interference, there simply isn't enough time to begin working and interfering with the frequencies on which we work".

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