An Allegedly Corrupt Russian Commander Sent His Best Drone Operator To Die As An Infantryman

Drones might be unmanned, but they still have pilots—on the ground. And a drone is only effective as its pilot is skilled.

That’s why the Ukrainian military recently established a separate branch of the armed forces to oversee independent drone units. The separate drone forces “are now proving their effectiveness in various parts of the front line,” Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s top commander, told CNN.

There’s no separate drone branch in the Russian armed forces. And that may have been a factor in the recent demise of one of the Russian army’s most experienced drone operators: Dmitry Lysakovsky.

On Friday, Lysakovsky reportedly went missing during an infantry assault on the village of Lysivka, four miles east of the Ukrainian stronghold of Pokrovsk in one of the most dangerous sectors of the front line in eastern Ukraine.

Lysakovsky didn’t participate in the failed assault on Lysivka as a drone operator. Instead, he carried a rifle—fighting, and reportedly dying, as a regular infantryman. And he sensed the end was nigh. “There’s a high chance that I won’t return,” Lysakovsky said in a video he recorded right before the attack.

If it seems odd that the Russia military is struggling to match the Ukrainian military drone-for-drone despite the Russian force being much bigger and overall better-equipped, consider the human operators behind every successful drone sortie. Ukraine takes care of its drone operators—not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because survival translates into greater experience, which translates into greater skill.

Not for nothing, Ukrainian first-person-view drone operators have recently begun striking Russian surveillance drones in mid-air—an incredibly difficult kind of engagement, given the situational awareness and precision required. Mid-air drone strikes are only possible because the attacking operators are extremely skilled.

Russian air-to-air drone kills are much less common. A lower overall level of operator skill is surely a factor. And the wastage of experienced operators such as Lysakovsky might help to explain that skill erosion.

Lysakovsky originally fought for the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic before Russia subsumed the DPR’s armed forces early in the current wider war. At the time of his reported death, he was part of the 87th Rifle Regiment, deployed along the axis between Avdiivka and Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.

According to Russian sources translated by the Estonian analyst WarTranslated, Lysakovsky had voluntarily formed a long-range drone reconnaissance team inside the 87th Regiment and was responsible for locating a significant number of Ukrainian vehicles, reportedly including at least one precious High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System wheeled launcher.

Lysakovsky’s reputation for effectiveness didn’t save him when a new officer, Igor Puzyk, took command of the regiment. Puzyk reportedly disbanded the drone team and reassigned the drone operators to infantry platoons.

In his final video, Lysakovsky not only accused Puzyk of incompetence—he also accused the officer of corruption and treason, even stating Puzyk was “influenced” by a Russian officer who Lysakovsky claimed was passing intelligence to Western officials.

Lysakovsky’s claims are difficult to prove. But there’s no denying it was a waste of Lysakovsky’s specialized skills to send him into battle with a rifle. Russian troops should mourn Lysakovsky’s wasteful death. But Ukrainian troops should celebrate it. The more experienced drone operators Russia wastes, the less effective its drones will be.

In that way, the Russians are unwittingly assisting the Ukrainians in one of their main modernization efforts as Russia’s wider war on Ukraine grinds into its 30th month. “We are constantly working on improving [our drones],” Ukrainian commander-in-chief Syrskyi said, “increasing their efficiency, improving the control system, ways and methods of usage. We are trying to maximize our technical superiority over the enemy to offset their superiority in terms of numbers.”

A big part of this technical superiority is operator superiority—something at least one Russian officer failed to appreciate when he sent his best drone operator to die as an infantryman.

Follow me on Twitter. Check out my website or some of my other work here. Send me a secure tip.

Sources:

1. CNN

2. WarTranslated

3. Andrew Perpetua

4. Ukraine Control Map

David Axe
Follow
David Axe is a journalist and filmmaker based in Columbia,… Read More

Editorial Standards
Corrections
Reprints & Permissions
Forbes
Business
Aerospace & Defense
Backed By Tanks And Covered By Glide-Bombing Fighter Jets, Ukrainian Troops Have Advanced Into Russia Along A New Axis
The town of Vesoloe is the locus of this new invasion.

David Axe
Forbes Staff
David Axe writes about ships, planes, tanks, drones and missiles.
Follow

Sep 15, 2024,06:19pm EDT
A Ukrainian bomb strikes a Russian position in Vesoloe.
A Ukrainian bomb strikes a Russian position in Vesoloe.Khorne Group catpure
On Thursday, Ukrainian combat engineers breached Russian defenses along the border near the village of Novyi Put, around 20 miles west of the 400-square-mile Ukrainian salient in Russia’s Kursk Oblast.

What at first appeared to be a brief and shallow Ukrainian assault in fact developed into something far more dangerous to Russian control over Kursk. Ukrainian armored trucks swiftly advanced several miles past Novyi Put toward the nearest town, Vesoloe. Now the Ukrainian force “has reached the southern outskirts of Vesoloe and has practically taken control of it,” the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies reported.

No later than Saturday, Ukrainian tanks rolled into Vesoloe. And on Sunday, a Ukrainian air force fighter-bomber lobbed a satellite-guided glide bomb—reportedly a U.S.-made Joint Direct Attack Munition—at a purported Russian position in a building in central Vesoloe, flattening the building while a drone from the Ukrainian Khorne Group watched from overhead. “We are observing all of you,” the group quipped on social media.

The Russian garrison around Vesoloe reportedly includes a large number of poorly-trained young conscripts, who were drafted for just a year of military service and, according to Kremlin policy, aren’t supposed to see combat.

The Russian northern grouping of forces’ heavy reliance on conscripts for the initial defense against the main Ukrainian thrust in Kursk starting in August is one reason the Ukrainians managed to advance so quickly along that axis. It’s an ominous sign for the Russians that their defensive efforts in Vesoloe apparently also depend on unprepared young men in their teens and early 20s.

If the Russians react to the Ukrainian attack on Vesoloe last week the same way they reacted to the wider Ukrainian invasion of Kursk last month, they may eventually redeploy some better-trained airborne forces to blunt the Ukrainian advance. The Khorne Group shrugged off this possibility. “Bring us more conscripts and paratroopers,” it taunted.

Aside from the Khorne Group, it’s unclear which Ukrainian units are involved in the fight for Vesoloe. It’s worth noting, however, that the Khorne Group’s videos of the Thursday breach seem to depict Turkish-made Kirpi armored trucks, which are popular with the Ukrainian marine corps. The 36th Marine Brigade is part of the main fight farther east in Kursk, so it’s possible the brigade is also behind the Vesoloe incursion.

Whichever brigade or brigades they’re facing in Vesoloe, the Russians are worried. Their local garrison reportedly includes a lot of young conscripts. By contrast, the invading Ukrainians appear to be battle-hardened volunteers backed by tanks, drones and warplanes. “Our contacts assess the situation as serious,” one Russian blogger noted.