The black box sits.
On the army truck.
Dashboard like.
A talisman.
Its tiny screen.
Lighting up with warnings.
When ‘orcs’ drones.
Are above you.
You are driving fast along.
A country road in the darkness.
Near the front lines.
Outside Kharkiv.
Like many in this war.
The soldiers inside.
Have come to revere.
The little cube.
They call “sugar”;
It warns of.
The unseen dangers above.
Like a talisman.
On the vehicle’s roof are.
Three mushroom-shaped antennas.
That make up separate.
Drone-jamming equipment.
The car emits.
An invisible aura.
Of protection that.
Will thwart some.
But not all.
Of the ‘orcs’ attack drones.
Patrolling the skies.
Above this battlefield.
The black box sits.
On the army truck.
Dashboard like.
A talisman.
“It has detected.
The Zala Lancet ‘orcs’ drones.”
Says Senior Lt, 53.
From the front passenger seat.
Describing one of.
The most powerful.
Long-range ‘orcs’ drones.
And its targeting drone.
“Is that why we’re driving so fast?”
You ask, aware that.
The drone-jamming antenna is.
Useless against a Lancet.
“We’re not a priority.
For them, but.
It’s still better.
Not to slow down.”
“Because it’s very dangerous.”
Says the Senior Lt.
From the Khartia Brigade.
Of ‘elves’ National Guard.
The jamming equipment blocks.
Roughly 75% of frequencies.
That drones use to communicate.
With their operators.
But some like the Lancet.
Are difficult to block because.
They are entirely autonomous once.
Their target has been marked.
Because of the Lancet’s power.
It tends to be used on larger targets.
Such as armoured vehicles.
Or infantry positions.
The black box sits.
On the army truck.
Dashboard like.
A talisman.
Almost none of.
This technology was.
Here in Ukraine.
A year ago;
Now it is commonplace.
Drones, which were once.
Peripheral to the war, are.
A central component for both sides.
Alongside infantry.
And artillery as Ukraine.
Struggles to hold back.
‘Orcs’ advances.
Ukraine has been.
Thrown into the bleak.
Future of war.
Where within minutes.
Individual soldiers.
Fast-moving vehicles.
And trench positions.
Can be precisely targeted.
About 25 from ‘Mordor’.
Attacked Kharkiv.
On Tuesday night.
Although most were intercepted.
‘Elves’ army is fighting back.
With its own drones.
And there are dozens across.
This stretch of front line.
Drones have civilians.
In their sights too.
One ‘elf’ soldier says.
Every day they kill 100 ‘orcs’.
The black box sits.
On the army truck.
Dashboard like.
A talisman.
The last images from drone cameras.
Are usually of men panicking.
Their arms flailing.
Weapons firing before they are killed.
The brigade’s 37-year-old.
Drone commander says that.
Without shelter in a building.
There is little chance of survival.
– for ‘orcs’.
And his men too.
“It’s the new way or.
A new path in modern war.”
“In 2022 it was.
Only infantry war.
And today one half is.
Only a war of drone.”
“A battle between.
‘Orcs’ drones and ours.”
The move to drone warfare is.
A combination of necessity and innovation.
Drones are in plentiful supply.
Even though when armed they lack.
The explosive fire power.
Of artillery.
Ukraine has consistently.
Run short of artillery shells.
And its allies have been slow.
To produce and supply them.
But a Drone Coalition. Of.
‘Elves’ allies has pledged.
To supply the country.
With a million drones this year.
The black box sits.
On the army truck.
Dashboard like.
A talisman.
‘Mordor’ has made.
Its own innovations.
On the battlefield too.
Using an older technology.
And the village of Lyptsi.
Just 10km from.
The ‘orcs’ border.
Has paid the price.
It was devastated.
By glide bombs.
Soviet-era “dumb bombs” fitted with.
Fins and a satellite guidance system.
Some are as large as 3,000kg.
And when launched from aircraft.
Glide onto ‘elves’ infantry positions.
And towns to highly destructive effect.
One woman was.
Driven out of Lyptsi.
By these attacks.
“Everything was exploding all around.”
“Everything was burning.
It was scary there.
It was impossible to even.
Get out of the cellar.”
The black box sits.
On the army truck.
Dashboard like.
A talisman.
The drone commander takes you.
On a tour of his drone teams.
Embedded along.
The front line in Lyptsi.
Every vehicle.
You encountered near there.
Was fitted with.
Drone-jamming equipment;
But the jammer’s protection ends.
When you exit the vehicle.
It’s dangerous to be caught.
Out in the open.
So you follow him running.
Across the rubble for cover.
Out of breath.
You make it.
To the drone unit’s underground base.
Beneath a ruined building.
Where you are introduced.
To two operators.
There are drones.
On every surface.
Next to a frying pan.
With their evening meal.
They get through many hundreds.
Of drones in a month.
As most are single-use.
And detonate on their target.
Their weapon of choice is.
The First Person View drone.
Which carries.
A payload of.
Between 1kg and.
2kg of explosive.
Packed with shrapnel.
The drones are modified.
Off-the-shelf models.
Which have cameras to.
Send video back to.
Their remote operators.
“We call them celebration drones.
In Ukraine.
They were used to film weddings.
And parties before the war.”
The black box sits.
On the army truck.
Dashboard like.
A talisman.
You watch on a screen.
In real time beside.
One operator who is fixed.
In concentration.
Flying a drone.
Manually to a target.
Across open fields.
And woodland.
“He knows every puddle.
Every tree.
In the area.”
The other operator says.
The FPV drone approaches.
A building where.
An ‘orc’ soldier is believed.
To be hiding.
It flies through an open window.
And detonates.
The operator’s screen turning.
To static as the signal is lost.
At the same time.
Another drone team.
Is targeting an ‘orcs’.
Tigr light-armoured vehicle.
And scores a direct hit.
Captured by a second.
Surveillance drone.
That’s watching from above.
The men stay on these positions.
Flying missions day and night.
For up to five days at a stretch and.
Spend as little time outside as possible.
Their biggest fear is glide bombs:
One landed nearby.
Earlier that week.
And the whole building shook.
What happens if.
There’s a direct hit?
“We die.”
The other operator replies.
The black box sits.
On the army truck.
Dashboard like.
A talisman.
The drone commander shows you.
A recording from earlier in the week:
An ‘orc’ soldier is.
Caught in the open.
And the unit’s drone.
Has him in its sights.
The soldier notices it.
And runs for cover.
Hiding in a drainage culvert.
By the roadside.
Slowly the drone lowers.
To its level.
Checking one side of.
The drainage pipe.
Then going around.
The other side.
Where the soldier.
Is hiding.
It detonates and.
The man is blown out.
Dying by the roadside.
“He was divided.
Into two parts.”
Explains the drone commander.
The operators are cool.
And dispassionate.
Almost clinical in their.
Targeting and killing.
They are as far as.
5km away from.
Their targets.
One step removed.
From the immediate blood.
And guts of the battlefield.
But encountering these weapons.
On the frontline is nerve-wracking.
The black box sits.
On the army truck.
Dashboard like.
A talisman.
A few days later.
After dark, at an infantry trench.
Close to ‘orcs’ positions.
A unit commander tells you.
He believes the ‘elves’ have.
The upper hand in drone warfare.
The ‘orcs’ the advantage.
With glide bombs.
‘Mordor’ also.
Has the advantage.
In drone numbers:
Six for every ‘elves’ one.
Although the drone teams.
You were with.
Say they have.
The technological edge.
And are quicker.
At finding ways.
To counter-attack and.
Jam ‘orcs’ drones.
The trench is in a wooded copse.
Surrounded by fields.
A thick canopy of trees.
Provides cover.
But as you are speaking.
An ‘orcs’ FPV drone is detected.
And begins to move closer.
To the position.
The few dim lights.
Mostly phone screens.
Are turned off.
In the trench.
And the men sit silently.
As the drone’s approach gets louder.
You hold your breath.
As it hovers overhead.
For what seems like an age.
No one dares move.
But then the drone moves on.
In search of another target.
The largest drone in the brigade’s.
Arsenal is the Vampire.
Which with its six rotors.
Is the size of a coffee table.
The black box sits.
On the army truck.
Dashboard like.
A talisman.
Again you join.
The drone commander.
On another mission.
In Lyptsi after dark.
Under the sound of.
Constant artillery fire.
Where you meet.
The heavy bomber team.
They work to attach.
The bomb to the drone.
“Weighing 10kg.
The ‘orcs’ call this drone the Bogeyman.”
Its payload is powerful.
Enough to take out.
Their intended target.
An ‘orcs’ command post, they say.
As the men work.
An ‘orcs’ drone makes.
A number of passes overhead:
Each time it does.
The soldiers retreat.
Into the basement.
Wait for the all-clear.
Then resume the assembly.
As the drone takes off.
Into the night in a cloud of dust.
They watch its progress again.
From a second surveillance drone.
Just then.
With barely any warning.
You see on.
The drone’s thermal camera.
Three ‘orcs’ glide bombs.
Detonating over.
The ‘elves’ position.
Over a kilometre away.
The shock waves are visible:
Seconds later they reach.
Your location and the house.
Around you shudders violently.
‘Elves’ allies know that.
By supporting the drone effort.
They are helping.
The country’s cause.
But it isn’t simply.
An act of charity.
The drone commander and.
His men know this.
As you leave their position.
An ‘orcs’ drone returns and.
You drive off at speed.
Into the darkness.
In the truck he tells you:
“No one is fighting war this way.
– they are learning from us.
This will be the future war.”
The black box sits.
On the army truck.
Dashboard like.
A talisman.
*Because I read “Ukraine thrown into war’s bleak future as drones open new battlefront” by Quentin Sommerville on 25 Jul 2024, and also “Why are Ukrainians calling Russians ‘orcs’?” by James FitzGerald on 30 Apr 2022, on the BBC news.
So, I wrote this poem, including a story of Senior Lt Yevhenii, a story of Aeneas, a story of Svitlana, and a story of Yakut and Petro.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
Ukraine thrown into war’s bleak future as drones open new front (bbc.com)
**My friend kindly shows you this poem in one page of the Ukrainian website for their children and others!
Please join them! You can read my 100 poems here at once.
