As Ukraine braces for a major Russian offensive, its ‘drone hunters’ fight to defend its cities

They stood silently in the main cities of Ukraine – the soldiers who called themselves “drone hunters.”

This week, CBC News was granted access to the Ukrainian military’s short-range air defense system outside Kyiv. The system is assembled to shoot down low-flying aircraft targeting Ukraine’s population centers – mostly Iranian-made kamikaze drones loaded with explosives.

The system is always on high alert, but soldiers monitoring drone strikes are now more alert as Ukraine seeks to counter what defense experts and the country’s leaders warn is a renewed Russian offensive in the East.

A few months ago, Ukraine asked its allies to help fight the threat posed by drone swarms. Currently, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky was on a European tour asking for bigger and better defense kit – not just tanks but fighter jets.

Drone hunters operate in mobile teams, linked by radar and command posts. They are often called upon to fight in the dark.

Ukrainian civilians refer to the triangular-shaped Shahed-136 drone as the “grass cutter of death” because of its terrifying sound.

The remotely piloted aircraft has a range of 2.5 meters and is packed with a 50 kilogram explosive charge. It’s a noisy, lumbering, slow engine that’s easy to take down during the day – so Russian carriers today usually fly between midnight and dawn.

Their only mission is the kind of attack that destroys civilian infrastructure. Last fall, he sent a wave of terror into war-weary Ukrainians by destroying the country’s energy grid, depriving millions of people of electricity and heat.

During the month, Ukraine asked for better and better air defense. He got it – eventually – but not before nearly half the energy grid was destroyed.

One of the soldiers guarding the position outside Kyiv – who, for security reasons, gave only his first name as Andrew – said members of the unit had shot down five drones since they finished training a few months ago.

There was an “adrenaline shot” with the first kill, Andrew said, but now “it’s like regular work and you’re happy to get shot.”

With laser range-finders and short-range missiles, he said, drone-hunter units have a 90 percent success rate.

In Brussels on Thursday, Ukrainian officials once again asked their allies to donate fighter jets.

Zelenskyy met with top leaders a day after requesting the advance of fighter jets in Britain.

“The visit to London was effective,” Zelenskyy said in the EU Parliament. “We have come close to a decision on long-range weapons and training for pilots and it is a step to provide Ukraine with fighter jets that we need. There are certain agreements that are unusual, but positive.”

But it is clearly not a discussion that Europeans in general want to have.

A week ago, French President Emmanuel Macron signaled his support for Zelenskyy’s request, saying everything remained on the table in the allies’ efforts to help Ukraine defend itself, including the provision of fighter jets. But Germany doesn’t usually send fighter jets.

Still, Zelenskyy seemed uplifted by the overall message from European leaders.

“You can count on us,” said EU Commission chief Ursla Von Der Leyen. “We will continue to provide our full support now to support your people through this terrible war, and for the future.”

But with Russia’s long-anticipated offensive in the East, Ukraine is growing impatient. Oleksandr Musiienko, a former adviser to Ukraine’s previous defense minister, said time was short.

“If we look now on the map, while we can expect attacks, I see that they will be in three or four directions,” he said, noting that the biggest push is to secure all of Donetsk and Luhansk – both of them. Russian provinces have illegally claimed their own. Another axis of advance could pass through the southern Zaporizhzhia region.