These Ukrainian Drones Don’t Just Kill. They Deliver Oatmeal Cookies.

The orders started coming in at around 7:30 on a Thursday morning — ordinary shopping lists under extraordinary conditions. Smoked bacon. Oatmeal cookies. Mayonnaise. Mashed potatoes. The customers were Ukrainian soldiers in frontline bunkers and trenches, requesting airdrops of provisions by drone.

Much of the work is done by heavy Ukrainian-made Vampire drones, which can easily switch from killing enemy soldiers to delivering creature comforts. They can fly in harsh weather and are harder than other drones to shoot down. The Russians call them Baba Yaga; when they are dropping treats, some Ukrainian soldiers call them “mama drones.” Members of the battalion known as the Da Vinci Wolves pack parcels to meet daily orders and aim for same-day drops.

A 22-year-old with the call sign Zhurba shops each day, while Lesyk, 29, packs sacks in a narrow room with a whiteboard listing positions and requests; he had been doing the work for a month while recovering from a wound.

Ukraine

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