Ukraine trains 10,000 drone pilots for expected counter-offensive

As the current Russian aerial battering of Kyiv and other cities indicates, military officials in Moscow are seeking to stave off a Ukraine counter-offense expected to be unleashed any day now – and for which the nation’s defense forces have trained 10,000 drone pilots.

As part of the anticipated effort to drive invading Russian forces from territories they occupy, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Innovation, Development of Education, Science and Technology and Minister of Digital Transformation, said the nation has spent millions of dollars buying new drones, and training thousands of pilots to effectively use them for a range of military objectives. 

Those mission reportedly include reconnaissance and intelligence gathering of enemy troop location and movement, relaying coordinates that artillery units use to accurately strike targets, and one-way kamikaze bombing missions by explosives-loaded UAVs flown by FPV…