From director of nude beach to famous battalion commander: combat day with Kyrylo Veres
This is a report full of facts, figures and real stories straight from the command post of the legendary K-2 battalion of the 54th Mechanized Brigade. We talk to the commander of one of the best drone units, Hero of Ukraine Kyrylo Veres, about the real "death factory" for the enemy.
- How many cigarettes do you smoke per day?
- No more than a pack!
- There are three packs!
- That's for the morning!
- Three in one morning?
- No, this is for the morning! My wife will see it! Well, about two and a half packs a day! She'll see and strangle me!
- Well, so it goes.
- It's not night yet! Here's the other ashtray!
- Oh, you measure them with ashtrays? Second ashtray in the morning and second ashtray in the afternoon, right?
- Yeah!
- Tell us about the intensity of the fighting.
- Last month there were 70 assault operations! One assault action can last 20 minutes, and some assaults last 12-15 hours! In other words, an average of 2 assaults per day! If we take, for example, the elimination of the enemy, which we destroy 50-60%, then, relatively speaking, last month the enemy's losses were about 400 people, well, 200-300 confirmed, so we take it as 800. That is, 800 people attack every month.
- How do you keep track of enemy losses?
- Only what we saw on the video. In other words, the bodies were counted, or we saw wounds in three hundredths. And we recorded it. It costs 15 million hryvnias a month to destroy this number of enemy battalion members. This is one of my dead guys. The same 15 million hryvnias. If I get 30 million hryvnias, I need it to earn back. If I have 30 million more, I will minimize my losses by 30 percent.
If you launch a drone every 15 minutes, no one will be able to get out. It flew, it crashed, and to hell with it. It flew, it crashed, it flew, it crashed. I was flying last night, just flying. I said that we were just circling around the enemy. Over the logistics road. They had a "stop" mode, no one was moving. I told them to circle until it crashed. Not a single car came to the logistics road. This is an argument. That's why war is about money.
I have to kill at least five people with one Mavic. "A Classic Mavic costs 60 thousand hryvnias. We have to kill at least 5 for the battalion to be in the black.
- Let's calculate what you have in terms of material support. How do you organize a battalion of a thousand people?
- I have my own tire shop. There are my trained infantrymen who have completed their training. Because in one day I punctured 34 wheels. Some tire shops do not work during the curfew... And when do you have to change to winter/summer tires? And given that the battalion mostly pays for everything, I get such amounts of money there... You know, people's money. We decided that it was better to pay 5 hryvnias for a repair and 2 hryvnias for a wheel weight than 300 hryvnias for a "change car tires back to summer tread" and a wheel.
Lifting post service station. Two. Two carriages. Two tow trucks. This is so that we can quickly transport them all over Ukraine. A couple of minibusses for logistics. Two mobile bath units. One for laundry, one combined bath and laundry, and one for bath. In short, we wash in one and bathe in the other. That's if we need to move some units somewhere. And the rest are excavators and tractors. Small ones, big ones.
- How much?
- Two. One was a birthday present. It's small.
- Do you have a separate generator farm?
- A generator farm with a staff of one generator operator. A guy from civilian life was specially recruited.
- How many generators?
A hundred, maybe 150. Well, they break, they come, they break. It's an eternal circle. Well, in a month, about 20 of them break down. At each position, basically, where there was an active assault, there is at least one generator for each fire. And a starlink. There are also battery-powered ones for large drones, and this is the third thing. So it's all centralized.
A small service station. And, well, he also repairs his own buggy ATV. For minor repairs, I have my own, and I am guided by Kyiv. For major repairs, it's either they or the service, who come and pick it up. Or I take them away and they bring it back to me.
So, the next thing I will ask for is the expansion of the rear units. That is, for the top management to accept this position in the current realities.
- Please tell us, so that we can understand, because there is an opinion that every soldier should be an infantryman. Why do rear units, how do you understand it, increase combat effectiveness?
- If every ground soldier should be an infantryman, then everyone should be an infantryman, not just soldiers. Well, first of all, we have a lot of people coming to us. If a person came to me as a driver, my personal vision is that he should be my driver. If he can no longer, let's say, perform the duties for which he signed up, he cannot be a driver. He has to be my driver. Well, he should try it at first. In my battalion, while I am still a battalion commander, and while I have the strength, I will not allow this. It's just like with the Russians: they send a pilot into battle, and I say, 'Oh, f#ck, well done, keep it up.
- You can't send pilots into combat?
- No, it won't happen here on my watch.
- Then tell us about the combat effectiveness of drones. You believe that a drone operator should not sit in a trench... What is your practical logic?
- No, let him sit in the trench, but he should be much more protected.
- Why does he have to fight with a drone and not a machine gun? Explain the logic, because maybe not everyone understands, they think that if they sit a little bit, it's no big deal.
- How many top guys do we have there? Well, how many casualties? The top assault man? I'm curious: 10, 20, 50? In two years? Well, this is a lot. If one of our infantrymen kills 50 Muscovites, that's cool. This is a real boy-hero of Ukraine. This is his job.
And my pilots each destroyed about a dozen. I will say more. The effectiveness of my unit, personally, when I went to the other side for stationing, short-range, ambushes, since 2014. The last time I went was in 2019, I think. So, during all this time, we killed a maximum of 10 people in small arms battles. In 4 years. Yes, there were prisoners, but not more than 10 people. But on a good day, I flew out - eight - 200ths, today since 12 am - 3 were 300ths. This is with two drones.
Five years of my life, hundreds of kilometers trampled over tripwires, minefields. And we returned with three hundredths. And with two hundredths, unfortunately. And what? Two drones flew out and did the same thing.
- Is this specialization of departments necessary now? What do you think the optimal organization should be to be able to produce results?
- I believe that my regular battalion should have at least two companies of drones. And then my infantry will be able to live. Two companies of regular robotic drones. So that I can do logistics - not send cars, because cars are driven by people. So that I can also mine. First of all, we have to cover the infantry, from the zero line to the third line. When you are doing well here, 3-7, 7-12, 12-20, 25-30, not from the end, but from the beginning. But in order to properly secure the area of responsibility, there should be about 200 drone operators there, 7-10 kilometers, 500 infantrymen. This is my personal vision. After 4 days, a drone operator is no longer a drone operator, its efficiency is going down to zero. The same crew, with the same density, can kill 20 people a day on the first day. And on the third or fourth day, God willing, they would have killed three. The efficiency drops to zero. He doesn't have 20 shots, and now he's dropping them, he can't make 20 shots, he can make one. And if he misses, this Muscovite will run out, he will come back in 100 meters. In my unit, not including infantry... Infantry is the top of the top. 80% of the success rate is due to drones!
- The infantry makes them possible, these successes...
- Well, 70% are drones, 20-30 are electronic warfare and 10% are artillery. We have days when artillery saves the day. Artillery works well.
(Talking on the radio with comrades in arms, correcting their actions)
- If it were 18 hours now, I would say that life is generally beautiful.
- Why do you say that?
- Well, because at night I am ten times stronger than any enemy. Well, any regular normal unit of the Armed Forces, much stronger. With the right use of technology. This is our time. Night is our everything. Night is not only for love. Right now, Hosha is drawing the enemy's losses to the person or crew who did it.
- Is Pelaheia a girl?
- Yes, my compadre.
- Does your compadre fly? Does she bomb? So this Pelaheia killed two Russian invaders today?
- Yes, but that's not enough. She has an average of four or five a day.
- Unbelievable!
- Nepotism. And she's sitting in the company's position, not five hundred kilometers away. Because she flies a Mavic. In my videos, when someone takes off there during the day, a girl says, "Pelaheia.
- Wow.
- Everyone is at war. Those closest to us are fighting the most. It's a case of the one who draws a cart is urged on. Today, they say, there were no assaults, but there were ten - two hundredths, three - three hundredths, and a moped. And that's without assaults.
- That's how you have a quiet day, you can say you're on vacation.
- Today is a lite day, a really lite day. If you don't take into account the cannon artillery, which is being fired. I wish every day was like this.
- And the enemy's losses for this day?
- Ten - two hundredths already, and three - three hundredths. And a moped.
- Is this what was only captured on video?
- Yes. I lost one drone worth sixty thousand hryvnias today. The pilot's wires were broken by shrapnel. That's why it was lost. This is a rare thing
If someone has been out of the line for three or four months and comes to Kyiv, to a peaceful territory, he will not be able to pull off. Perhaps, as some kind of a rear unit, without infantry, he will pull it off. But with infantry in the trenches, with logistics, with evacuation of the wounded, with food delivery, the ammunition load... he will not pull it off. It's a f#cking disaster. Just like that, something new, something new, every day something new.
That's what I've been trying to eradicate in the unit the most: when someone is beaten and someone is attacked, everyone goes there. All firepower wants to shoot. All the infantry wants to run there...
- All armies do this...
- In general, I have been eradicating this one completely. Even if there are 33, almost observation point, as long as the situation is under control, no one will come without my order. Because the four of us are chasing on the left, and the armor is on the right, or vice versa. Everyone is doing their job.
- And tell me your opinion... Right now we have a problem: the enemy is advancing in almost all areas of the front and pushing through our defense. There are very few areas where the enemy cannot break through, and one of them is your area. What you have confirmed is the enormous strength - the losses inflicted on the enemy by your battalion. And how do you make sure that the enemy cannot break through the defense? What is the basic logic of this process, how to organize it?
- I need only a few out of hundreds to reach my front line. Then we can survive. If 10 to 10 people run to my trenches, then in 2-3 attacks they will kill me, they will simply destroy me.
- What should be the size of this kilzone? Do you have a certain zone in front of your positions where you try to make sure you have full control so that the enemy doesn't get through?
- 300 meters in front of my trenches is already a critical point. 200 meters is already critical. This is close combat. This is a sprint of 40 seconds. The enemy must be killed 400 to 500 meters in front of me.
A normal, most importantly, objective understanding of your means, what you can do. And understanding of this process. And even if your pilots are not very good... (Shows how to give instructions to pilots - ed.). I can easily command three or four crews. One battalion cannot hold a 20-40 km line.
I will say one thing now: How many people do you need if you are on the defense? If the enemy, for example, for my 10 people, is in the forest, not in the city, or in the field, how many personnel does the enemy have to send to push me though ? One to three. I ask a normal question: if I am attacked by a thousand people, and I repel a hundred, repel, destroy, destroy, I have exceeded all army indicators, right? So why, when their company is on the defensive, should I send my 10 men? Where does it say that in the book? In defense, I have to kill one to three anyway, they send one to five, one to seven, one to ten. And on the offensive, I also have to destroy one to three or one to ten, only in my favor. Where the f#ck was this written? I don't understand it. You have to be on the defense! I should, I agree with you. What went wrong with us then? "These are Russians, you have to kill them in thousands with five soldiers and capture a thousand with five soldiers." Well, this does not happen.
Tell us, what kind of troops should be at the front?
- Drone, drone infantry, drone assault, drone engineering, drone .... Everything is drone...
- All troops should have the prefix "drone" at the beginning, then they are modern.
- Do we distinguish between robotic drones?
- Well, these are nuances.
- Let's call them drones. Let there be more drones in the infantry brigade. We can't do without infantry, but we can't do without drones either.
- Tell me, how many operators do you have now, just the ones who operate the drones?
- A lot of them. I have a company of strike unmanned aerial vehicles. One per battalion.
- How many operators do you have in your battalion? You have platoons, right?
- Yes, I do. I have some in the infantry. There are probably 40 mavic operators, give or take. That's without attached.
- You have a group of drone operators, right? Tell us about the drone operators' group. What kind of group is it, who is in it, how many people are there?
- There are 40 people who are purely mavic operators who watch. There are 10 people who bomb with light bombers. A group of FPV operators. And a group of night bombers. Well, up to a hundred.
- What do you mean, explain to us your personal term "chasing homeless people at night"?
- Well, we cut their logistics. They cut us, we cut them. I say, let's fly maybe 14-15 kilometers away. We'll chase someone there. As we were driving, we found a motorcyclist. We destroyed the motorcyclist. Well, the motorcycle was destroyed, it was a 300, a heavy motorcycle. And there was an interception, and everything, and a video.
The drone operators are talking. According to the report, three of the group of five occupiers died after the drone work - 200ths and two were seriously wounded.
- And this is without any risk to the infantry. The infantry doesn't even see where all this is happening...
- No, they see it. They watch the broadcasts too.
- Oh, well, only on the broadcast. I mean the infantry sitting in their positions.
- No, maybe one of them sees it. Because we were the ones who crawled to them. Yes, they understand. Well, it's 400 meters away from them. Well, not so much the whole battle scene... Well, they understand where... They see that the drones are there... They understand that if we are moving somewhere deliberately, they understand.
- The assault group was simply torn apart without a chance. They didn't even get within range of small arms. Do they have any position there, or were they going to assault?
- They were going to assault. There is no position. They infiltrated. I withdrew from some positions there. They jumped in...
- You eliminated not just some suckers, but five stormtroopers, quite motivated people.
- Well, they somehow walked 1.5 kilometers here.
- And they disguised themselves, they were strong-willed.
- But they betrayed themselves on trifle. They betrayed themselves because he either got lost or went out to get a drink of water. Well, this is a big plus. From here they have to run six hundred kilometers to themselves. They won't be able to run back to themselves. In three hours, they won't be able to escape from here at all. That's it. A night drone will find them at the 15th minute. All the normal expensive bombers will arrive. At an altitude of 70 meters, there is nothing left. And so on every night. The enemy has a brigade and two battalions. One full-fledged brigade and two battalions of another brigade.
- And what about the enemy? They shelled your infantry for three hours today, right?
- Probably more. And now they are still shelling. For what?
- Do you have any losses so far?
- Today, thank God, there were none!
- Well, the enemy is also actively using drones here, right? They also fly over your positions.
- First of all, who are they against? They are against me. It's clear what I teach them. They'll learn exactly what I've invented in two weeks. Exactly, f**king one-to-one.
- How to increase infantry survival? That is, to break only positions so that they can maneuver in defense?
- Yes. We need to dig more. And take more favorable positions. That's the kind of infantry I'm talking about. They have been hammering my position for five hours. I said, in front of you: where is the counter-battery? We can't get it, we can't get it, f**k. These are the harsh realities of life for all infantry. How many shells can they take in their dugout? One hundred, two hundred, a thousand. Well, today they have already received 80, in the position, 50/50. So for three days, a hundred shells each, and then it withdraws. They just keep backing away, backing away. They are the ones who are burning and burning. In three or four days they will start screaming.
- Please tell us about the experience in your life that gave you the ability to learn so quickly, to adapt, to find people's interaction, to develop yourself constantly, to count money, to work for results. Where did you get all this from?
- Poor childhood (laughs - ed.). I just try to do everything I can in a human way, in my own way. If the country and the top management put me in my position, it means that I am doing something right.
-Where did you work before joining the army? What was your work experience like?
- On the beach. I was the beach Development Director. I had about 30 people subordinate to me there.
- The nudist beach at Hydropark?
- Yes, on Trukhaniv Island, not on Hydropark. You have to swim across the river. I was 22 at the time.
- When you were 20, you became the Director of a nudist beach on Trukhaniv Island?
- I became the Development Director.
- Development Director?
- Well, my father says to say that. Yeah. On a good day, we had up to three thousand visitors on the beach. We had to bring them in somehow. 80 percent of them up there. We had to provide them with recreation: cafes, drinks, food. Boats, a ferry, order. Plus some rescuers, cleaners. Well, that's three thousand people who will do something. I used to go by boat myself. I was transporting people. I did everything like everyone else. It was a small team.
- You were entrusted with delivering results, right? That is, you earned money there. You were responsible for making everything profitable.
- Well, I came in time and offered people to make it profitable. I said, give me some time. They said, that's it. Now it's all yours.
- Did you make good money from it?
- More than in the army. Much more. Of course. Five months of the season - you could live all year round. Well, it's like in any resort town. Especially at that time, there was a good rate. And I had enough of everything. I could buy a car for myself.
- And your first position was during the war. Did you join in 2014?
- I was there during the encirclement of Sloviansk.
- What unit did you serve in?
- Kyiv-1 battalion of the Kyiv patrol police. I ran, slept, went to training exercises. He was a scout. I lived like everyone else, worked like everyone else. But there was a little bit in the 92nd Brigade where I guarded the brigade commander, and I had a small team with me, which I formed. We went on stationing, did everything. Then the brigade commander was promoted in 2016, and I was a reconnaissance company morale officer. And then in 2017, the brigade commander resigned. One of the battalion commanders took me to be his chief of intelligence. Because he knew that I would not ride it out. And when the war started, I was forced to be a battalion commander. I wanted to, but not in this brigade. I already had an interview for a battalion commander in another brigade. The war started and that was it. I became a brigade commander.
- Work experience in civilian life is, in principle, useful for a person to show whether he or she has leadership skills and communication skills. It is not necessary to serve in the army for this. On the contrary, if the army is not at war, it is even harder to show it.
- You walk, march, make papers - you're the man. Our first and foremost task is to fight. These other tasks come afterwards. It's not like fighting. Fighting is even the wrong approach. Our task is to inflict maximum losses on the enemy. I can put it this way.
- This is a very important difference.
- To fight... Everyone can fight. They can fight either badly or well. But they still fight. Everything is measured by the enemy's losses. And by your losses. Two components: your losses and the enemy's losses.
