UNLIKELY HEROES
Ukrainian amateur drone users destroy Russia’s 40-mile convoy in deadly David & Goliath ambushes
A SQUAD of amateur drone users say they've managed to destroy Russia's 40-mile convoy in a number of deadly ambushes.
The unlikely heroes took out swathes of Russia's infamous "death convoy" of tanks and armoured vehicles, which was trapped outside Kyiv.
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Volunteer experts from specialist air reconnaissance unit Aerorozvidka used drones with thermal imagine cameras or those capable of dropping small bombs as well as sniper rifles to attack Russian troops.
The group's commander Lt Col Yaroslav Honchar said an ambush near the town of Ivankiv helped to halt the massive Russian operation during the first days of the Ukraine invasion.
The special IT force used quad bikes to approach the column at night, and attacked its supply depot to prevent the Russians from advancing.
Honchar told the : “This one little unit in the night destroyed two or three vehicles at the head of this convoy, and after that it was stuck.
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"They stayed there two more nights, and [destroyed] many vehicles.”
“The first echelon of the Russian force was stuck without heat, without oil, without bombs and without gas. And it all happened because of the work of 30 people,” he added.
The elite unit claims it also helped to stop a Russian airborne attack on Hostomel airport by shelling 200 paratroopers.
Honchar compared the group's fight to the work of "a hive of bees.”
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“One bee is nothing, but if you are faced with a thousand, it can defeat a big force. We are like bees, but we work at night,” he said.
The group's key to success is that they tend to attack in the dark "when Russians sleep" as Putin's forces stay in their tanks during the night fearing being hit by Ukrainian shelling.
A member of the team told the "In the night it’s impossible to see our drones.
“We look specifically for the most valuable truck in the convoy and then we hit it precisely and we can do it really well with very low collateral damage — even in the villages it’s possible. You can get much closer at night.”
And the team that has reportedly destroyed dozens of “priority targets” relies on Starlink satellites which were donated to them SpaceX founder Elon Musk on the first days of the invasion.
The team started back in 2014 when a group of young Ukrainians volunteered to help in the fight against the Russian invasion of Crimea and the Donbas region.
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It comes as....
- Ukrainian soldiers have recaptured one of the first towns to fall to Russian invaders.
- Dramatic Call Of Duty-style footage shows the moment a Ukrainian soldier obliterates a Russian tank using a guided missile.
- Murdered Putin rival Boris Nemtsov ‘was tailed’ by an agent linked to Kremlin hit squad as suspect lays siege to Mariupol.
- Up to 40,000 Ukrainians have been snatched from besieged cities and forced into Russian slave labour in a war crime.
- Chilling footage shows injured Russian soldiers looking terrified as they are awarded bravery medals for their role in Putin's Ukraine invasion.
- Russia wants to split Ukraine in half like North and South Korea, the country's military intelligence chief has warned.
- A blind mystic who is said to have predicted 9/11 and Russia's invasion of Ukraine claimed Putin will become "lord of the world".
- Civilians in Kyiv have resorted to drinking sewage water as the city continues to be bombarded by horror Russian missile strikes.
And now the amateurs' team have been a vital part of Ukraine's resistance while humiliated Putin's forces have been hit by plummeting morale.
The quick victory the Russian leader had promised his troops has not come, with Ukrainians mounting strong resistance.
A Russian soldier reportedly drove his tank into his commanding officer in protest while a taxi driver surrendered with a tank in exchange for £7,500 and Ukrainian citizenship.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces have reclaimed Trostianets, one of the first towns to fall, in another blow to Putin's war.
Russia's defeat is a significant victory, defence sources say - as it opens a route to the besieged city of Sumy.
The Russian President is believed to be facing defeat in Kyiv while Ukrainians have fought hard to reclaim Kherson.
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Kherson was the first major city to be captured by Russian troops but Ukrainian forces have launched a heroic retaliation.
President Zelensky said his troops had delivered "powerful blows" to Moscow's forces around the capital and urged the Kremlin to negotiate an end to the bloody war.
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