Ukrainian Geeks Turned Guerrillas Make Frontline Drones

For young Ukrainian geeks, making drones -- for reconnaissance or destruction -- in a house basement near the Donbas frontline is "new generation" guerrilla warfare. In dim light, the 20-somethings busily piece together electronic components spread out on tables, with the help of laptops and documents, while artillery fire thuds in the background. Next the repair room next door -- a laundry room before the war -- drones are patched up using spare parts taken from aircraft damaged "in battle" against the Russians. In the garden shed meanwhile, a 19-year-old, whose nom de guerre is Varnak, transforms grenades designed for grenade launchers into bombs to be dropped from drones. You just add fins to them and change the detonation system, he tells AFP, smiling.