Fighting Russia from a distance: Inside a Ukrainian drone school
Al Jazeera
As drones dominate the Russia-Ukraine war, even Ukrainians who aren’t conscripts are learning how to make and fly them.
Kyiv, Ukraine – Andrey Pronin doesn’t know how many drones he has crashed.
“I lost count after 100,” the 44-year-old, camouflage-clad instructor told Al Jazeera while observing three cadets of his drone flight school pilot their buzzing aircraft over a withering meadow just outside Kyiv.
Sitting at a plastic table littered with tools and batteries, the cadets with their joysticks and goggle cameras looked geeky and harmless.
During their Saturday morning drill, each of them took turns flying a drone whose camera allows first-person views of the flight.
Time after time after time, the cadets learned how to manoeuvre their drones by flying them through two loops stuck into the wet ground.
