The drone pilot locates a target: a Russian Army soldier on a road near Toretsk, one of the main fronts in eastern Ukraine. The soldier chases the motorcyclist with a drone capable of carrying up to 3 kilos of explosives. He navigates using three screens and a joystick.
**Folha** follows the action of Yenot (war name). "I think the ‘guy’ is delivering ammunition, but it’s suicidal to be this exposed," he comments.
The weapon’s camera shows the drone approaching the motorcycle. The image then disappears, and static fills the screen. The drone had exploded. Images on another screen, from the surveillance drone’s camera, showed the explosion. But the Russian soldier had not died. He fell and started staggering.
Yenot smokes a cigarette, takes a sip of an energy drink, and adjusts his immersive vision goggles. Two soldiers launch another drone to "finish the mission."
Ukrainian soldiers talk inside a hideout in the Toretsk region, Donetsk. Foto: Patrícia Campos Mello/Folhapress - Patrícia Campos Mello/Folhapress
The second drone approaches the soldier. With a bloodied beard, he stares into the drone’s camera. The screen fills with static and then shows the explosion and the Russian dead. "You’re making a moral judgment. But the Russian didn’t surrender. That’s war," says Yenot.
Drones, far more precise and lethal than human snipers, are the snipers of the Ukraine War. According to commanders, they kill more than all other weapons combined. Today, unmanned aerial vehicles are responsible for over 70% of battlefield deaths.
Yenot stays in an underground wooden-fortified hideout called a "shielding." He has spent up to three weeks there, and even going to the bathroom is a high-risk mission. The reporter mentioned needing to urinate, in a destroyed house next to the hideout. After checking a screen, a Ukrainian soldier reported: "Not possible, an enemy drone is flying overhead." Fifteen minutes later, he said: "The sky is clear, go—but run."
[Read the article in the original language](https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mundo/2025/03/drones-dominam-frentes-de-batalha-na-ucrania-e-ninguem-esta-a-salvo-na-superficie-veja-video.shtml)