They escaped Ukraine’s frontlines. The sound of drones followed them

In a narrow apartment in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, Pavlu, a 30 -year -old drone operator and recently returned from the front, canceling a black box pressure around the size of the pizza box. Inside, there was a four -cycle drone that was intending to fly around the room.

Press the buttons on the console and pushing the antenna to different locations. Nothing happened. “Sorry, not today,” he said with a smile. The unit seemed fine, but something was broken.

In the foreground, Pavlu, who only requested to be identified by his first name, was a pilot of drones from the first person (FPV). These small maneuvering drones contain front cameras that allow them to move them away. Over the past year or so, bombs fouvs have become everywhere on the front lines in Ukraine, to replace heavy weapons that characterized the first stage of the war.

FPVs chases armored vehicles, infantry units through Treelines and confront individual soldiers to their deaths. “You cannot hide from FPV, and running is useless,” said Pavlu. “You are trying to be as calm as possible, and you are praying.”

Even when the FPV is very high so that it cannot be seen clearly or hidden behind the leaves, the soldiers can hear its high distinctive enemy.

“Bzzzzzzzzzz,” said Pavlo. “You were caught.”

After more than a year in the foreground, Pavlu returned home to Kiev’s apartment, which he shares with his wife. But the sound of drones followed him. Remembering him daily mechanical tools such as garnished, motorcycles, and FPVs air conditioners that hunted him and his colleagues in the unit.

And nature is not an escape. Pavlu can no longer hear the sound of bees and flies that are close to it without creeping panic. “I don’t like to go to nature anymore and I hear this voice, because it reminds me of drones,” he said.

The shock associated with sound is not new – generations of soldiers were affected by sudden noise after returning to civil life. But with the development of the war in Ukraine into a conflict led by drone technology, the shock has evolved with it.

“During the past year, the majority of patients – if they do not have physical injuries – are suffering from mental health injuries as a result of the activity of drones,” said Dr. Sirhi Andrechenko, a chief psychiatrist at Kiev Military Hospital. “We call these drones.”

Dr. Andrechenko said that thousands of men are now returning from the front like Pavlu, with severe tension disorders associated with drones. Done -aircraft phobia can be turned through a set of regular urban sounds – small motorcycles, motorbikes, grass marriage, and air conditioners – anything mechanical.

“If there is a plane from the mobile or in the weeds, my first idea is that it may be a drone,” said Safour, another soldier, who lost his arm in a FPV drone, said:

Safur said in the front line, the drones were a “permanent sound”, according to the military protocol that he requested to be identified by his call. “The sound of the dandruff lasts only a few seconds, but the sound of the drone is mostly present,” he said.

“You can put in your position, in your fox, and listen to it for hours. I remember this sound all the time.”

Or sometimes the problem was the opposite – silence. “Silence is always the beginning.” “When the soldiers go into rotating to combat parking, they start listening carefully to make sure that there are no drones. There is constant tension and permanent fear. They are always looking.”

In many cases, this constant feeling of tension has not been dispelled by returning to civil life. Soldiers suddenly were observed, turning off the lights at home, staying away from windows and hiding under the furniture.

Later, if a soldier is seen for treatment, Dr. Andrichnko describes how he often does not have any anniversary of the trigger, but his wife or a member of his family will reveal that an extracted fan or air conditioner has just been operated.

Soldiers came from the previous stages of the war – which were more distinguished by direct fighting – to the house of fear that they were in the forests, where a lot of fighting occurred. But the drone warfare reflected this phenomenon. The psychiatrist said that the soldiers “now feel safe in the forests, under thick curtains.” “In their spare time, they are trying to avoid the wooded areas.”

The rise in the use of drones had another terrible impact on the fighting forces – the danger area has extended away from the confrontation line. Soldiers who work up to 40 km (25 miles), or retreat after heavy rotation, can no longer let their guard.

Nazar Bokhii, a small drone leader, was about 5 kilometers from the connection line in a hideout one day when his unit scored a direct blow to a Russian mortar site 22 km away. By raising success, Bakhi’s challenge from the hideout, forgetting the usual protocol of stopping first to listen to a noise.

A few meters away, the Russian FPV was hanging in the air. As he set out towards him, Bukhi only had time to raise his arms. When it exploded, he took his hands and left eyes and burned his face strongly.

He said that the post -traumatic disorder in Bukhi was limited in response to fear through motorcycles and grass distributions. But he knew the influence of the voice, because his unit used it to attach terrorism to others.

“We were the side that caused fear with the sound, not the side that he suffered,” said Bukhehi.

They realized at some point that the sound could be used to force Russian soldiers on exposed areas. “You are exploding around them and becoming a test of enemy’s psychological flexibility,” said Bukhehi. “The sound of the drone is a dangerous psychological attack.”

According to Bokhii, the tanner is over a soldier for a long time enough and will leave a strong shelter and simply face the open terrain. “Our psychology works in a way that we need to do something to calm ourselves,” said Bukhehi. “So, she hovers nearby and stabilizes it psychologically … and begins to run and becomes easier to hit him.”

FPV psychological terrorism is no longer a problem on the confrontation line. I have reached beyond the regions behind the front lines. Russia has begun to use FPVs to drop munitions on civilians in the nearby Ukrainian cities.

Among the worst successes of Kharrson, the southern city occupied by Russian forces for a period of time and is still comfortable within the scope of drones. According to Human Rights Watch, Russian forces deliberately targeted civilians in the city with FPV drones and killed them – the crime of war.

According to the regional military administration, at least 84 civilians have been killed in the Jeresson region as a result of Russian drones so far this year.

Residents say the small FPVs is a daily horror.

“There is no longer any safe place,” said Dmytro Olifirenko, 23 -year -old border goalkeeper and lives in City. “You should always be alert and focus on it, and because of this, the body is constantly exposed,” he said.

Oliverinko was waiting for a bus station in September when he heard the familiar sound of a Russian drone. “We thought it would follow the bus, because they were looking for civilian buses,” he said.

Instead, the drone shot down its ammunition on the bus station, as it sent shrapnel to Oliverinko’s head, face and leg. The video of the accident, which was filmed by a passer -by, seized the drone of the drone, followed by the screaming of Oliverinko, bleeding on the sidewalk.

He said that Oliverinko has now heard the “constantly” drones, whether they were there. “It hits your mental and psychological health hard,” he said. “Even when you leave for mykolaiv or another city, you are trying to constantly listen.”

For civilians such as Olivernko, drones turned the regular voices of the populated area – cars, motorcycles, generators, grass cultivation, and air conditioners – into a psychological jump for civilians for running every day, even when they are at risk to drones.

For soldiers who return from the front, such as Pavlu, drones created a new type of fear, not easy to shake.

“You see the world as a battlefield,” said Pavlo. “It can become a battlefield in any second.”

He said that among all the operators, hearing – drones effectively used it – was the most treacherous.

“When you see something, your mind can check it in a second, you can realize what is very fast.

“But an unknown voice is different. Your mind has been changed. You cannot ignore it, you must respond. Because on the front lines, it may save your life.”

Svitlana Libet contributed to this report. Pictures of Joel Gunter.