Ukraine’s Drone Czar Is a ‘Warhammer’ Guy

Colonel Vadym Sukharevsky, the 39-year-old antheral starring Ukraine’s drone division, is simply a Warhammer guy. A profile of Sukharevsky for The Economist sets the scene.

“The aerial smells of caller paint, java and shisha tobacco, to which Colonel Sukharevsky appears addicted,” the Economist said. “Wires, drone-boxes and computers prevarication scattered implicit the floor. Swords, an extended postulation of daggers, and Warhammer models, which helium glues unneurotic successful spare evenings, implicit the eccentric representation of a modern-day Cossack hetman.”

Sukharevsky sits successful a gaming seat with customized embroidery. A batch of radical get their gamer tags sewn into the heads of their chairs, but not Sukharevsky. He had “See it, sprout it” stitched into the chair, a notation to thing helium told his soldiers backmost successful 2014 erstwhile helium ordered them to occurrence against an aboriginal question of Russian proxies invading Ukraine.

Warhammer is simply a British wargame wherever players overgarment miniatures and conflict them successful lengthy tabletop campaigns. There’s a phantasy mentation and a sci-fi mentation which is acceptable successful a far-flung aboriginal of 40,000 years from now. The Economist doesn’t specify which mentation Sukharevsky has models for, but Warhammer 40K is acold much popular.

Warhammer 40K depicts a nightmarish aboriginal wherever humanity is swaddled successful fascism and warfare is simply a changeless of life. Humanity is simply a galaxy-spanning Empire that toils successful genocidal wars successful work to a corpse emperor. It was erstwhile a niche hobby but has go progressively popular, adjacent among politicians and soldiers. James Cleverly, Britain’s Home Secretary, is simply a large fan. During interviews astatine his home, Cleverly’s Sisters of Battle—a benignant of gun-wielding warrior nun—are on show down him.

In Ukraine, drones are the aboriginal of war. Quadcopters and FPV drones person helped Kyiv combat Russia to a stalemate. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense created the drone command, the archetypal of its benignant successful the world, and put Sukharevsky successful charge of it connected June 10. Sukharevsky told The Economist that drones are an important portion of the warfare effort, but not the be-all and end-all.

Modern warfare is inactive astir taking and holding territory and combined arms. In galore ways, the warfare successful Ukraine looks a batch similar World War I and World War II. Soldiers person dug agelong lines of antiaircraft trenches and aggressors effort to propulsion either enactment with mechanized infantry. Artillery pummels either broadside from the air. Ukraine has adjacent dug retired 140-year-old instrumentality guns and entered them into service.

The quality present is that each this enactment is aided by technology. Drones springiness commanders eyes successful the entity and the quality to cheaply onslaught astatine force armor successful the field. Sometimes, a Steamdeck is being utilized to power those aged instrumentality guns. “Military operations inactive beryllium connected combined arms, and different kinds of troops volition proceed to beryllium conscionable arsenic important,” Sukharevsky told The Economist.