Behind the scenes with the Ukrainian ‘Vampire’ DroneAlso known as the 'Baba Yaga' drone, named after a Ukrainian folk tale witch, we take a look at what makes Ukrainian innovation so unique.
Editor's Note: The article was published in collaboration with the BIHUS Info, a Ukrainian publication. To subscribe to BIHUS Info, click here. And don’t forget to support our work! Upgrade to a paid subscription today by clicking below: As the night falls, a terrifying Ukrainian drone, the Vampire, wakes up. “We are going to bomb a Russian mortar,” said Andrii, an assistant drone pilot with the 68th separate Oleksa Dovbush Ranger Brigade, which is currently operating near Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region.  It’s thankless work. But these mortars can be very dangerous to Ukrainian soldiers. “If we can destroy a Russian mortar that threatens our infantry, or at least damage it, disable it for a day or two, we are doing a very good job,” says Mykhailo, a drone pilot. The pilots are working. They drop one bomb, followed by another. “They did a good job. Let it burn slowly. See how well it burns? That's it, the mortar is fucked,” Mykhailo and Andrii tell each other, adding that their heartbeats as racing as they work. “When the occupiers burn, it always feels great.”
The Vampire attack drone, equipped with a thermal camera, was developed by the Ukrainian company SkyFall specifically for night operations. This UAV is difficult to detect in the dark, as the Russians need thermal sights or night vision devices to engage it with small arms fire. It is probably for this reason that Russian troops have nicknamed it 'Baba Yaga,' after the fearsome and elusive witch of Ukrainian folk tales. One of Vampire's advantages is its ease of use. The developers claim that their instructors can train operators from scratch in just 3 hours.
The drone war is growing. According to U.S. officials, the Ukrainian armed forces are losing about 10,000 drones a month. Officially, the Ukrainian and Russian sides do not disclose their UAV losses. Designed to navigate challenging battlefield conditions, the Vampire drone represents a significant leap in the use of unmanned systems. Its deployment not only reflects Ukraine's growing reliance on technology-driven defense strategies, but also underscores the importance of drones in shifting the balance on the front lines. The drone can lift loads of up to 15 kilograms and climb to an altitude of 400 meters. According to the manufacturers, this allows the Vampire to drop different types of ammunition on the enemy: thermobaric and high-explosive fragmentation, which allows it to effectively destroy different types of targets.
Vampires are relatively inexpensive at $10,000 apiece. And they’re easy to modify, making them cost-effective. The military uses them to destroy armored vehicles and tanks, as well as enemy defenses, fortifications, or ammunition dumps. "This is a heavy bomber that works on all targets. It was designed primarily for shelters... It can also work on equipment," said drone pilot Mykhailo. The main difference between a drone and artillery is that artillery cannot shoot as accurately. A drone almost always hits the target. In this way, the military saves ammunition, which is already in short supply in Ukraine. Interested in Ukrainian defense technology? Sign up for our sister publication, Counteroffensive Pro! It covers the regulatory environment for tech innovation, interesting startups and the latest trends in Ukraine for Western defense firms and VCs. Thanks to the Vampire, the pilots of the 68th Brigade can bomb Russian positions, minefields or other areas where the enemy is located, and the Vampire also delivers food to Ukrainian soldiers who are on the front line and cannot get it themselves. "Now we will deliver water and food to our troops on the front line. The drone is the only way. We have no other way to deliver," says Andrii, call sign 'Luchan', assistant pilot of the 68th brigade. "Misha, let's go to work," his comrade shouts at him, and Misha [short for Mykhailo] drops food for the Ukrainian military from the drone. But he is stopped by the silhouette of the cat Murchik in the drone's control window. Mykhailo and his comrades are trying to make sure that the wild animals are not harmed: "Murchik's tail is long! Oh, that Murchik. He got away, hooray,” he exclaims.
These deliveries are quite frequent, sometimes 5-6 times a day. "We feel that we are doing a good deed. Without mutual aid, nothing will happen… Thanks to the infantry we are here, we are standing. Everything is holding, the infantry is holding the line of defense," said Andrii and Mykhailo.
Andrii and Mykhailo say they are already used to their work, it has become a routine for them. But at the same time, they realize that they are doing an extremely important job: using drones to help stop the Russians from advancing deeper into Ukraine. "We don't want them to stop somewhere in the Rivne region [in western Ukraine], God help us. We want them to stop here."
NEWS OF THE DAY:Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands. THE ROOTS OF TRUMP'S UKRAINE GRUDGE: The moment after Trump and Putin met in 2017, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told WH aides: "We've got work to do to change the president's mind in Ukraine." Putin told Trump that Ukraine was a corrupt and fabricated country, the New York Times reported. Trump had become president thinking that Ukrainian officials preferred Democrats — a theme that has continue to today. In Pennsylvania recently, Trump said at a rally that Zelenskyy “wants [the Democrats] to win this election so badly.” SECURITY OFFICIAL AT NUCLEAR POWER PLANT KILLED: Ukrainian military intelligence said that alleged pro-Russian collaborator Andrei Korotkiy died due to a bomb placed under his car. Korotkiy had worked with the Russians, Ukrainian sources said, and outed Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant employees with pro-Ukrainian views. Russia still controls the territory around the plant, which has been the site of numerous nuclear emergencies. UKRAINE RAIDS ALLEGED CORRUPT OFFICIAL: Investigators claimed yesterday that they had found $6 million USD in cash at the home of an official in charge of the medical commission in the western Khmelnitsky region. The raid was part of a probe into whether they had run an illegal plan to register people as disabled in order to avoid the draft, The Guardian reported. CORRUPTION WHISTLEBLOWER WINS REWARD, A FIRST: For the first time ever, a whistleblower received an award for exposing wrongdoing. The person in question is a current soldier who served as an auditor at the Ministry of Defense in 2020-2021, and claimed that he had been offered a bribe in exchange for favorable actions for a private company. DEFENSE MINISTRY ALLEGES RUSSIAN POW EXECUTIONS: The ministry said that it believes at least 177 Ukrainian prisoners of war have died in Russian custody, reports Hromadske. DOG OF WAR:This photogenic dog we saw in the western city of Lviv, as we were attending a Ukrainian tech gathering.
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Behind the scenes with the Ukrainian ‘Vampire’ Drone
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