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Jeweler-tuned-drone maker. Violetta Oliinyk used to work with jewelry for most of her life – until the big war replaced gems in her arms with deadly devices. Sending her father and two brothers on the frontline, Violetta learnt to assemble FPV drones for reconnaissance and combat – and has supplied the Ukrainian army with 23 drones since last fall. Violetta speaks Ukrainian.
3D Printing Army. Artillery casings, Starkink details, and remote controls for drones – Ievhen Volnov, who had started 3D printing during COVID, couldn’t imagine his hobby turning into the Printing Army in a few years. During the full-scale invasion, Ievhen brought together 1,700 enthusiasts whose 3D printers are now supplying thousands of Ukrainian soldiers with free plastic devices, many of which are unavailable anywhere else. In addition to coordinating the work of 2,000 3D printers and their owners, Ievhen has launched a free training course for all volunteers who wish to help the army with their printing skills. Ievhen speaks English.
School teacher printing drones. An IT teacher in a private school, Artur Alekseenko, got the better of the 3D printing skills he was teaching his students. Aware of the high demand for FPV drones, in November 2023, Artur convinced the college authorities to purchase a serial 3D printer to produce deficit details on his own. Since then, Artur and his students have purchased two more printers and supplied the Ukrainian Army with thousands of free drone components and uniquely customized items based on soldiers’ requests. Artur doesn’t speak English.
The people’s army of drones. The importance of drones inspired programmer Oleksii Asanov to co-found the KazhanFly school, which provides free drone flying education to Ukrainian soldiers. In September 2023, Oleksii and his partners scaled up by launching the Social Drone initiative, which offers free lessons in drone assembly to all volunteers. Hoping to boost Ukraine’s drone manufacturing, the Social Drone has already created a decentralized network of over 3,000 qualified engineers, who are supplying the Ukrainian army with record cheap self-made devices.
2.3 Ukraine’s power infrastructure in danger from Russian missile barrage, Washington tells Kyiv curb oil refinery attacks
Ukraine has suffered a second day of intense bombing of its power stations, plunging half a dozen regions into darkness, as the Kremlin tries to take advantage of Kyiv’s dwindling supply of air defence ammo.
At the same time, the US asked Zelenskiy’s administration to curb its long-distance drone strikes on Russia’s oil refineries, as production has dropped by 10% since the start of the year, threatening an oil product price strike ahead of US elections slated for this November.
Missile barrage
On the night of March 21-22, Russian forces launched a combined missile and drone strike against Ukraine's critical infrastructure using a total of 151 aerial
9 UKRAINE Country Report April 2024 www.intellinews.com