Dear Supporters of Ukraine,
Frankly, the situation on the front is very difficult. Russia grinds on, the glide bombs keep falling, and mustering and training new recruits for Ukraine's forces will take quite some time. Russia’s losses remain as huge as ever, and in all embattled regions our valiant friends on the front lines continue inflicting maximum damage to the best of their abilities.
On an upbeat note, the Armed Forces of Ukraine received an initial batch of F-16 multirole fighter aircraft, and it appears the aircraft came with fairly modern air-to-air and anti-radiation missiles. One thing is certain; the West must finally abandon both redlinery and incrementalism to ensure Ukraine can finally reach a position of true strength.
While we cannot change world politics, the UAO team in Ukraine continues making an impact on the ground: This week alone, we received reports from both the 79th Brigade and the Lyut Brigade that the drone jammers we delivered saved lives of our friends on the front lines by downing Russian FPV drones.
Just as we were finishing this August newsletter, to provide you with fresh insights into our work, the urgent need arose to support the drone pilots of the 22nd Mechanised Brigade, which this morning began fighting in the Kursk region of Russia!
Your UAO Volunteer Team
Urgent support for the drone pilots of the 22nd Mechanised Brigade currently fighting in the Kursk region of Russia
Ukraine’s 22nd Mechanised Brigade is probably among those units with the strongest legacy. The brigade was initially formed as the "66th Guards Rifle Division" during WW2 in 1943, and became notorious for its performance in the battle of Kursk. After it was reorganised several times since Ukrainian independence, it was eventually disbanded in 2003, only to be reactivated in 2023, and deployed to some of the most embattled parts on the front, notably Bakhmut. As we write this now, the brigade is directly involved in the fighting of the Kursk Region inside Russia.
Donate to Support the 22nd Mechanised Brigade
Last week, both male and female pilots from the brigade's acclaimed drone battalion reached out to us that they are in urgent need of drones. As you know, drones are essential life-savers, enabling our friends on the front lines to see the enemy well in advance, and can even substitute artillery and mortar fire in various cases. UAO has supported the drone battalion of the 22nd Mechanised Brigade before, and we can assure you that its pilots are highly capable and will make very good use of the drones we intend to purchase from your donations.
With your help, we plan to provide the drone pilots of the 22nd Mechanised Brigade with the following:
- FPV drones
- Matrice 30T drone
- Drone jammers
- Signal repeaters
- Starlink terminals
- Ecoflow power stations
- Inverter generators
As always, you can get unique patches and signed unit flags as a reward for your donations. Thank you for supporting these valiant troops!
The fight for the skies - Viktoria from our partner charity “RA” reports
Viktoria shared, "From the Ukrainian perspective, short on aircraft and front line air-defence to protect them, the fight for the skies along the line of contact has become almost entirely dependent on UAVs of all kinds, sizes and ranges. The war of the future is already fought today. Highly manoeuverable and affordable, both warring factions continue to suffer from evolving surveillance, precision targeting and sheer volume - day and night. All it takes is a drone pilot detecting a worthwhile target, and a swarm of drones will appear in no time and seek to eliminate it.
This is exactly what happened to our friends from the 79th Brigade. Recently, they were tasked with the evacuation of injured soldiers, and with delivering supplies and provisions. It was their first assignment under the protection of a novel 5-band drone jammer, procured by our partner UAO. Multi-band drone-jammers are costly, and before, soldiers were sourcing 2-band devices at best, if at all.
All went well that day, and the drone jammer fulfilled its task 100%, until, on the return journey to the initial point of deployment, the car of the unit ran over a mine - the road, safe on their way earlier, had meanwhile been mined remotely by Russian drones. Their car incapacitated, some soldiers wounded, they jumped out and dispersed. One soldier, responsible for drone-jamming, made the decision to try and recover it from the damaged car. He hid in the nearby foliage, observing it, while watching several enemy drones trying to approach the vehicle to destroy it once and for all. Within a radius of around 50 metres, the drones were repelled or incapacitated, the drone jammer remained switched on and functioning. At last, as night drew close, the soldier dared to approach the vehicle and successfully retrieved the drone jammer, taking it back to the base. He witnessed first hand how well a multi-band device can protect a meaningful area. Only some cables and antennas suffered minor damage, the drone jammer remained by and large intact, and it was quickly serviced and ready for redeployment.
This is just one account of many that shows just how important modern electronic warfare along the line of contact really is. Hopefully, it will encourage you to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine in its relentless electronic warfare with the enemy. UAO played a key role in procurement, delivery and repair of the drone jammer, and we are ever so grateful to them, performing important support missions."
Massive assaults repelled by the 79th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade
Using the same multi-band drone jammer UAO provided to the 22nd brigade, the 79th brigade received instant recognition for hitting the enemy hard, twice in only six days! The 79th brigade is well seasoned in defending against large-scale assaults, for example the massive armoured “meat-wave” assault around Novomykhailivka. The 79th repelled two massive assaults at Kurakhove, where, in the early hours of 24th July, Russia attacked with a huge (!) column of 11 MBTs, 45 IFVs, and 12 motorcycles, of which 6 MBTs, 7 IFVs and all 12 motorcycles were destroyed. Russia suffered many casualties, a minimum of 40 soldiers were killed and 37 wounded. Only six days later, on 30th July, the Russians tried to assault at Kurakhove again, this time going in with 10 MBTs, 47 IFVs, and 10 motorcycles. In no time, the Ukrainian defenders destroyed 8 MBTs, 12 IFVs and all 10 motorcycles, using a mix of artillery and mortar fire, ATGM and drone strikes. 36 enemy soldiers were killed and 32 were wounded. In both cases, what was left of the Russian assault group was forced to retreat.
We can pride ourselves a bit for the fact that before the assaults, consequently repelled also by your generous donations, we made several deliveries to the 79th - thermal vision devices, drone jammers, Starlink terminals, FPV drones and Ecoflow power stations. We always aim to deliver essential equipment to the most critical zones on the battlefield, liaising with Ukrainian troops directly, to ensure the highest possible impact.
A two week journey through Ukraine
Mid-July, one of UAO’s volunteers, Andreas from Berlin, went on a two-week journey covering 5227 km, the car loaded with inverter generators, from Berlin to Lviv, Odesa, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro, Kramatorsk, Slovyansk, Sviatohirsk, Izyum, Kharkiv and back via Kyiv and Lutsk. Throughout, temperatures were approaching 40°C in the shade, with sometimes nearly day-long power cuts in most cities; and one can only imagine the hardship soldiers and elderly people are forced to endure.
Unlike on a previous trip, Andreas was no longer allowed to pass through Pokrovsk, being told to take the road via Barvinkove further north instead. And right there, on those country lanes, an endless string of seemingly bottomless potholes, it hit home that once Russia interrupts the T0504, the Kramatorsk and Slovyansk region is left with a single good road towards Izyum and Kharkiv.
The generators were handed over to the Lyut brigade in Kramatorsk, homebase of UAO volunteer Rima, where a couple of medics shared harrowing stories from their work at stabilisation points close to the front lines. With Russia continuing to destroy and weaken Ukraine’s electricity grid even further, autumn and winter inevitably approaching, inverter generators are most critical items for soldiers and citizens alike, and we would be ever so grateful, if you can manage to donate towards such devices.
Covering most of Ukraine in a long counter-clockwise journey, the stark contrast between comparatively peaceful places and those not far from the front lines is verging on the surreal. All the way from Odesa to Kharkiv, the summer being as great as no other - once you take a closer look, you begin to notice the evil tell-tale signs of the "Russian world" all around you. Having witnessed a cruise missile attack on Odesa and a glide bomb on Kharkiv, Andreas realised that there are no such things as “safe places”, as certain deck-chair politicians in Europe cunningly suggest in their desire for repatriation of refugees.
“Know the Gear” - Ventilators
This time, as part of our newsletter series “Know the Gear”, we want to focus on ventilators that UAO has provided when possible. Ventilators are complex costly devices and play a crucial role in military medicine due to the factors below:
Combat Injuries: Soldiers often sustain severe injuries, including from gun shots and shrapnel, that affect the respiratory system. Ventilators provide critical support to soldiers with compromised lung function due to such trauma and burns, but also inhalation injuries, or exposure to gases.
Critical care: Many combat-related injuries require immediate and advanced medical care, including mechanical ventilation, to stabilise patients and maintain their oxygenation until they can be transported to a higher-level rearward care facility.
Stabilisation points and field hospitals: In forward-deployed settings like field hospitals or during medical evacuation operations from the front line to rearward stabilisation points, portable and robust ventilators are essential. They allow for the continuous respiratory support of critically injured soldiers during transport from the battlefield to more comprehensive medical facilities.
Prolonged field care: In situations where immediate evacuation is not possible, ventilators are vital for providing prolonged field care. They enable medically trained soldiers to sustain life and manage severe respiratory conditions in extreme environments for extended periods.
UAO buys ventilators with the help of our medical fund!
Donate towards medical equipment and supplies
