San Francisco Frontiers - Ill-equipped and tired: a night with a Ukrainian air defence unit

"There! Three kilometres away!" shouted one Ukrainian serviceman in the air defence unit equipped with Soviet-era weapons and tasked with intercepting Russian drones, before they home in on Ukrainian towns and cities.

The long-range unmanned aerial vehicles originally designed by Iran but improved and launched by Moscow have been devastating Ukraine since the early chapters of the Kremlin's invasion launched in early 2022.

Moscow has trumpeted its industrial-scale production of the cheap weapons, with state-television broadcasting what it called the world's largest drone factory.

The rare footage showed the assembly of hundreds of jet-black triangle-shaped Gerans -- geraniums in Russian.

On the night in July that AFP embedded with an air defence unit in Ukraine's eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Russia launched 344 drones, but its largest-ever barrage comprised of more than 700.

"It's rotten tonight, just like the day before," said one serviceman in the air defence unit, leaning over a radar.

Increasingly sophisticated Gerans are flying at higher altitudes and able to alter course en route, but Vasyl's unit is equipped with old, short-range weapons.

"They fly chaotically and unpredictably. It has become harder to destroy them," the 49-year-old told AFP.

"We're effective, but I can't promise that it will be like this every week," he added.

- 'Nothing we can do' -

Oleksandr, a fellow serviceman defending airspace near Pavlograd city, was scrutinising a radar where hundreds of red dots were appearing.

"There's nothing we can do. It's not our area," he said of the incoming drones.

His 20-year-old daughter, who lives in Pavlograd, was not answering her phone, he told AFP while lighting a cigarette.

"But I warned her," added Oleksandr, who like others in this story identified himself with his first name or army nickname in line with military protocol.

An explosion boomed, the horizon glowed crimson and dark smoke appeared in the sky moments later.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has secured several Patriot batteries from allies since the invasion began and is appealing for funding for 10 more systems.

But the sophisticated systems are reserved for fending off Russian missile attacks on high-priority targets and larger cities.

Ukraine is instead seeking to roll out cheap interceptor drones to replace units like Vasyl's, and Zelensky has tasked manufacturers with producing up to 1,000 per day.

"People and modern weapons" are what Ukraine needs to defend its air space, Vasyl told AFP.

The teams get little sleep -- two hours on average, or four on a good night, and perhaps another one between drone waves, Vasyl said, adding that the deprivation takes a physical toll.

One serviceman with another air defence unit in the eastern Donetsk region, who goes by Wolf, told AFP he has problems sleeping anyway due to grim memories he has fighting in east Ukraine.

- Sleep deprivation -

Belyi who works alongside Wolf was assigned to the unit regiment after he sustained a concussion and a shell blew off part of his hand while he was fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Both were miners in eastern Ukraine before Moscow invaded.

Russian drones are threatening their families in the city of Kryvyi Rig, in the neighbouring region further west.

Neither has been granted leave to visit home in more than two years and they are instead working around the clock, seven days a week.

Back near Pavlograd, sunrise reveals dark circles under the soldiers' eyes, but the buzz of a new drone wave emerges from the horizon.

The unit's anti-aircraft gun fires one volley of tracer rounds, then jams. The team grabs WWII-era machine guns and fire blindly in the air.

Another drone in the Russian arsenal is the Gerbera, once an unarmed decoy used to overwhelm air defence systems that have since been fitted with cameras and are targeting Vasyl's team.

"Only fools are not afraid. Really," he said.

On his phone he showed an image of his two blond-haired children who are now living in the capital Kyiv -- also under escalating bombardments.

"I'm here for them," he told AFP.

Z.Sanchez--SFF