AS soon as Zhanna Melnyk finishes work, she stays up late into the night assembling attack drones while the TV buzzes in the background. She's part of a growing army of Ukrainian civilians quietly hand-building small, but lethal precision weapons in makeshift workshops in their kitchens and bedrooms. Ukraine has become increasingly reliant on first-person-view (FPV) drones — nimble, armour-busting, tank-blitzing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Since early 2023, the cheap, explosive, flying machines have turned into one of Kyiv's biggest success stories on the battlefield and change the future of land warfare . However, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence quickly found demand from frontline units was fast outstripping production. And so, thousands of volunteers stepped in.
Now, hours of their days - and often nights - are spent sourcing, assembling and soldering the kamikaze weapons . Zhanna Melnyk, a 25-year-old from Vinnytsia, calls drone building her “hobby” but it’s a lot more than that. For nine months, she has been a web developer by day and a drone constructor by night.
Like the thousands of others who are quickly joining up to crowdsourced projects, she was desperate to help the war effort and knew the importance of FPVs on the battlefield. Everyone should contribute to the common goal so we survive She volunteers for SocialDrone , a do-it-yourself drone building initiative whose tagline is: "A DIY drone for €250 can do the job a €70,000 Javelin 1 shot". Zhann.
