December 2024 Update - Happy Holidays from UAO! Our work, an exclusive drone pilot interview, and more!
Dear Supporters of Ukraine,
As we bid farewell to yet another year of war, all eyes in Ukraine - and in America and Europe for that matter - are trained on the calendar: January 20, 2025, the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States of America, draws closer.
The implications for the future of Ukraine, for what will ensue, are unknown. Instead of joining the pitch game of futile speculation, we want to express our sincere and heartfelt gratitude to you - the many donors from around the world that continue supporting us to support the stalwart defenders of Ukraine in their uphill battle for freedom and independence. True to the spirit of Christmas, we end 2024 with a call for donations towards thermal vision cameras for the defenders of the 3rd Assault Brigade, and hope you will open the next chapter, 2025, with us.
In this newsletter, you'll find out about our latest work in Ukraine, read an interview with a drone pilot of the 54th Separate Mechanised Brigade, learn about donating while also saving taxes, and get some insight into night and thermal vision devices.
Your UAO Volunteer Team
Support the drone team of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade to keep the Russians out of Kharkiv
As mentioned above, we want to promote a fundraiser for high-quality thermal vision cameras for the legendary 3rd Separate Assault Brigade. Since spring 2024, it has defended the line of contact in the Kharkiv region, conducting some of the most successful raids into the Russian-held areas.
With many battles continuing in other areas, the frontline the brigade has been tasked with defending has lengthened quite much. Its efforts became “superhuman”. Everything depends on the effectiveness of their operations. One must not forget that Russia has already taken too much Ukrainian land - the four oblasts Russia illegally claims as “annexed” - and losing territory in another oblast could be disastrous.
The UAV-group “Punk” of the 2nd Mechanised Infantry Battalion, led by commander Denys “Var” Sokur, was assigned a particularly important defensive role - spotting and destroying Russian artillery pieces, nipping mechanised assaults in the bud. You can see the highly professional UAV-group in action in videos like these to marvel at how skillfully they are preparing and optimising their drones 24/7.
While the “Punk” team does receive a reasonable quantity of FPV drones from AFU supplies and through various charities, they are sadly lacking one of the most critical items - high-quality thermal vision cameras.
In times of winter, when nights grow long and longer, most of the enemy troop and equipment movement takes place in the dark. To prevent Russian infantry and assault teams from encroaching on Ukrainian defences, they must be spotted at the earliest opportunity. This is why high-resolution night vision and particularly thermal vision cameras are essential. Devices like these, the “soldier’s sixth sense” as some say, are expensive, but they very much enhance the utility value of drones deployed for surveillance tasks. It is well known that Russia can field large numbers of such cameras with a resolution of 384 x 288 pixels or higher for their single-use drones, while Ukraine is scrambling to source models with a mere 256 x 192 pixels. In other words, Russia currently has an unfair advantage on the nightly winter battlefield.
This is why the UAV-group “Punk” of the 2nd Mechanised Infantry Battalion asked UAO to provide at least 50 high-resolution thermal vision cameras for drones, reducing the battlefield disadvantage. Because of advantageous circumstances, we can purchase such devices at 25% lower cost compared to what “Punk” would have to pay – a substantial difference in a war where economic advantages matter a lot.
Donate here: https://donorbox.org/elf-on-shelf-drones
Interview with "Square Root" from the 54th Brigade
As we wrote in November, UAO was honored to meet Paul and Daniel from the YouTube channel "Combat Veteran Reacts" (CVR) in Ukraine. We organised meetings for them and took them on a delivery trip. A series of interviews will appear on their channel. Make sure you have a look; and while you’re there - please subscribe! One interview, with Square Root from the 54th Separate Mechanised Brigade, has already been published. Below, you find a small part of it (transcribed for readability):
Paul: Could you give us your name, unit and tell us a bit about your role in the unit?
Square Root: My call sign is Square Root. I am a drone pilot of the 54th Separate Mechanised Brigade named after Hetman Ivan Mazepa. I am an ordinary soldier dealing with documents, and a pilot of Mavic and Autel drones. My story starts in the year 2020, when I entered a contract. They gave me an ordinary Mavic 2 drone, which was simply for reconnaissance. I was already learning then, gaining skills. Then, when the hybrid warfare began (after the full-scale invasion), we started using these drones also to spot troops, targeting equipment as much as possible, and we did some bomb drops. Then the 3rd generation Mavics appeared, which were improved drones.
Paul: Were they purely for reconnaissance? Or also droppings? And what kind of items can you drop?
Square Root: Both. Also for droppings - water, fuel, food, bombs.
Paul: We’ve heard that for the soldiers on the zero-line, dropped food and water is pretty important.
Square Root: This is true. Logistics are a problem at the moment. Enemy drones fly over our positions and it’s impossible to leave the bunkers. If you go out, you will be wounded in the best case. If you go out and run, you will be killed. So, dropping food, especially ready-made meals, for example instant noodles, water, and trench candles for cooking is the only option.
Paul: What is the most important skill for a drone pilot?
Square Root: You have to think it’s worthwhile. To fight with dedication, responsibility, and loyalty. The most important thing is that you are striving to become better, striving to learn everything. If you don’t learn you will lose the drones.
Paul: What is the best target for a bomber-drone?
Square Root: You look at the infantry, or a van, or a mortar. It depends on the height you are at. My favorite targets are BMPs or tanks. There are sometimes open hatches. If the commander of the vehicle, the driver and the mechanic fled from it, the hatches are open, which is better for a dropping.
Paul: What kind of items does your unit need?
Square Root: New drones, jammers and vehicles for the evacuation of the wounded and fallen from the battlefield. More drones also to deliver food and all life-necessities, even medicine.
If you want to donate towards the equipment needed by the 54th Brigade, and other units interviewed by Paul, please contribute to the fundraiser below!
Donate here: https://donorbox.org/cvr-friends
Square Root with the CVR and UAO team. The 54th brigade receives an Autel drone from UAO
Support the defenders of Ukraine and save taxes!
In several nations - the U.S., Australia, and many EU member states - your donations towards registered charities like UAO are tax-deductible. So, as 2024 draws to a close, you can both support the defenders of Ukraine while saving taxes!
U.S. citizens:
You can donate cash, stocks, retirement distributions, or cryptocurrencies. As a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit charity, donations are tax-deductible to the full extent allowable under IRS regulations: https://donorbox.org/donate-to-ukraine-aid-operations
Please also check if your employer offers a "Double your Donation" program (many U.S. employers match employees’ donations to registered charities like UAO) that would double the impact of your donation. See here if your employer offers such a program: https://ukraineaidops.org/pages/how-to-help
Australian citizens:
You can donate through our Australian partner charity "Auxilius Foundation". Auxilius is an incorporated registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission: https://paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=4EDYZKUPFMMTE
Dutch and other EU member state citizens:
You can donate through our Dutch partner charity "Stichting Eyes on Ukraine". Via this link https://bunq.me/UAO you can donate to UAO (payments will be processed through iDEAL, SOFORT, or Bancontact). You can also transfer your donation directly to our UAO bank account (IBAN: NL86BUNQ2118496753, Account holder: Stichting Eyes on Ukraine, currency: €).
"Stichting Eyes on Ukraine" is registered as "Algemeen Nut Beogende Instelling" (ANBI) and, as a Dutch charity, is exempted from taxation. Tax deduction of your donation in other EU member states depends on your local taxation laws. If you want to declare the donation, please try to verify in advance whether it will be deductible. After your donation, you can request the donation receipt via the button below. The donation receipt will be issued to you in January of the following year: Request your donation receipt
Know the gear - night vision and thermal vision devices
As part of our occasional newsletter series “Know the gear”, we provide more details about the equipment we provide, so that you know what we do with your donations. This time: Vision enhancing devices.
How do they work?
Nothing is more important on the battlefield than surveillance, the ability to spot the enemy in advance and to monitor its movements from a safe distance. In the dark or through dense foliage, situational awareness and clandestine operations become difficult or entirely impossible - enter “image intensification devices”. Human eyes and regular cameras cannot construct a meaningful image when electromagnetic radiation (“light” from about 380 - 750 nm) is scant or absent altogether - but devices with particular sensors, mounted within a lens system for magnification purposes, can. They are commonly called night vision and thermal vision devices. You will see that thermal vision devices have the advantage of being useful during daytime also.
Night vision devices, also known as NVGs/NVDs and "Nods", are based on analog image intensification (I2) tubes. The available light - ambient, moon, stars - is gathered through a lens system onto a photocathode that also lets near infrared radiation (“light” from about 750 - 1100 nm) or “NIR” pass, then amplified through a micro-channel plate, then displayed on a phosphor screen, traditionally green, but also available in white, and finally shown through a fiber-optic inverter and eyepiece. The monocular field-of-view is typically about 40° and the image produced is round. If there is no available light to be amplified, there is nothing to see.
Thermal vision devices (aka "thermals") work outside of the human visible spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, detecting infrared radiation from about 8000 - 14000 nm or “LWIR”; in other words, they detect heat, thermal energy; and in particular, they make heat differentials down to 0.01% visible. The infrared radiation emitted in the field-of-view is gathered through a lens system onto a microbolometer, then processed by what is essentially a tiny computer and image processing algorithms, then displayed as an adjustable artificial colour representation on a display, and finally shown through an eyepiece. This means that one can “see” even in zero light conditions - because everything emits radiation - but also in daytime, for example through foliage or camouflage, in fog or snowfall. One reason why the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade very much needs them!
Thank you for standing strong with Ukraine. Together we will win this war!
Sincerely, the UAO volunteer team.
Heroyam Slava!