"Khartiia" drone operators attempt to eliminate up to 50,000 occupiers per month, - Times
Drone Industry
Ukrainian UAV pilots are striving to achieve the goal set by the Minister of Defence: to eliminate 50,000 Russian occupiers every month.
According to Censor.NET, this was reported by The Times.
Details
A 21-year-old fighter from the "Khartiia" brigade, call sign Strig, who carries out search and destroy missions against Russian UAV operators north of Kharkiv, says:
"I didn’t set out to be judge, jury and executioner. But executioner is what I have become. And I am fine with that … Killing becomes second nature. It is the easiest thing in the world. Some people want to feel empathy for everyone. I don’t."
Strig, a Romanian who lived in Britain and left in 2024 to join the drone squad of the "Khartiia" brigade, specialising in targeting Russian drone pilots.
The goal is to eliminate 50,000 occupiers.
Journalists recalled that increasing Russian military losses has been a central strategy for Ukrainian drone pilots this year. Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov told reporters that Ukraine aims to eliminate 50,000 occupiers every month.
This is how they plan to "make the cost of war for Russia one it cannot sustain, thereby forcing peace through strength".
The authors note that the Kremlin's ability to conduct operations in Ukraine depends on its ability to replace more soldiers than it loses each month. Currently, according to Western estimates, Russia suffers between 30,000 and 35,000 casualties in Ukraine each month.
The ability to replace them is already in question. In December last year, Russia's 33,200 dead and wounded in a month exceeded the 27,400 newly recruited contract soldiers.
The authors suggest that if Russia's losses rise to 50,000 per month, Putin may be forced to declare mobilisation.
Strig and other volunteers work under the command of Second Lieutenant Yurii Butusov of the "Khartiia" Brigade, who heads a specialised drone platoon.
The Times writes that the unit, formed in August 2025, has attracted many Ukrainian and foreign specialists to its ranks.
In particular, 26-year-old Ukrainian Alina Shukh, a former world champion in javelin throwing and heptathlon among juniors under 20, serves there.
Almost 10% of the platoon consists of foreign volunteers, and one of the unit's engineers is a Japanese citizen with the call sign Hiroshi.
A 25-year-old Australian with the call sign Koala, who serves in Butusov's unit, says: "I felt nothing after my first kill. I did my job. I took a Russian off the battlefield and turned him into fertiliser.Really it felt like flying a toy into someone."
