Vyacheslav Ratinsky took this photo back in winter, in February. One of the Ukrainian charitable foundations transfers FPV drones to the military, on which people from all over Ukraine have been pouring money for several months. Two thousand FPV drones laid out in elongated thin black and white lines on the floor of a large pavilion. Between these lines The Ukrainian military holds one of the drones in his hands like a toy. A friend of mine who serves in a drone operator training center told me that FPV drones were once “sport” drones and were only suitable for staging very expensive races. “And now we're going to go all in a row,” he says. He often talks about drones in the language of children's games: “our drones”, “my bumblebees”, “fierce wagtails”.
The FPV drones in Ratinsky's photograph stretch through long lines of presence, continuous internal time. And I remember my school parties of the 1990s. Here are connected to the TVs “Dandy” set-top boxes and pirated cartridges of the game “Battle City”, which my friends and I called simply “Tanks”. Here is my personal “tank” destroys enemy tanks, defends the headquarters, escapes from water, bushes and ice, collects in a heap bonus “star”, bonus “clock”, bonus “shield”, destroys brick and concrete walls and collects more and more lives, because if all the lives of the “tank” end Come on, the game will end too. I ask my friend if he played “dances”. “He played,” he says. The carefree language of our childhood comes to my throat and I ask: “How many lives does an FPV drone need?” And my friend explains to me that a “drone” should hit an enemy target, and an enemy target should cost millions of dollars, and one life is enough for that “drone”. One life and skillful operator. And may the operator live long and happy. “It's very simple,” says my friend. Just as simple as in this photo of Ratinsky. As simple as when you transfer money to another drone.
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Olena Huseynova — Ukrainian writer, radio host, radio producer. Since 2016, he has been working on Radio Culture (Social). She is currently the editor-in-chief of the Editorial Radio Theater and Literary Programs. From February 26, 2022, Elena worked as a live presenter of a 24-hour information radio marathon on Ukrainian Radio (Social). Author of two poetry books “Open Rider” (2012), “Superheroes” (2016). He writes essays and small prose.
Viacheslav Ratynskyi — Ukrainian reporter and documentary photographer. He was born in Zhytomyr. He has been living and working in Kyiv for the last 9 years. Graduate of the Faculty of Journalism of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. He has been published in many Ukrainian publications (Ukrainska Pravda, Hromadske, Novoe Vremia, Focus, Forbes, Ukrainian Week, Reporters and others), as well as in a number of foreign publications (Time, The Guardian, The Wall Street journal, The Washington mail, The Telegraph, Daily Mail, The New York Times, El Pais, Radio Freedom Europe, BBC, Reuters, Der Spiegel).
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