Interview with SOF strike UAV company commander Dzhokhar | Censor.NET

08.05.26 15:04 1 251 2

SOF strike UAV company commander Dzhokhar: It is like fishing from distance of 40 km. You sit and wait for big fish to swim by

A military journalist who had covered events in Donbas on television since 2014 mobilized during the full-scale invasion, despite having a solid mobilization exemption because he worked at the Office of the President of Ukraine. He now specializes, together with his unit, in cutting off the enemy army’s supply routes using FPV "sleeper" drones. He is also ready to share the experience of his Special Operations Forces unit, which has achieved an almost 100% success rate.

A year ago, we met Dzhokhar in one of the cities near the front line. When I asked him what had happened to journalism, he snapped back: "What journalism? Women can do that. Men should defend the country." He has now been serving for four years, working in an important niche: destroying enemy logistics with FPV "sleeper" drones. He compares his work to fishing, something he has not been able to do for several years. He positions the drones and waits for a "big fat fish" to swim up:

"The closest enemy fiber-optic crew position I observed was one and a half kilometers from the line of fire," Dzhokhar says. "An assault group came in and cleared the position. And an FPV operator working with fiber-optic drones immediately sat down next to the assault trooper. He instantly began striking our roads and the vehicles using them. What stable operations can we talk about if they target our logistics the moment they advance even a little? Their FPVs are used precisely to cut off our roads. They move and drive up as close as possible, bring in supplies, and that means they have to be hit on the approach. That is why we also remotely mine roads. It is an effective method. I analyze exactly where PTM anti-tank mines can be scattered, and we deliver them by drones. At night, we mine a sector. In the morning, our fixed-wing UAV takes off, and it is very satisfying to hear the pilots' report after nighttime mining: there is a wrecked vehicle on one mine, another vehicle burned down on another. They all worked. It is the same kind of fishing. Just like working against logistics. You sit and wait for a bite. It works like a float."

I hope you can also sense that Dzhokhar treats everything he likes with tenderness. And I hope you will understand why we are not publishing our interlocutor’s face or name. There are serious reasons for that.

"I HAD A MOBILIZATION EXEMPTION, BUT I STILL MANAGED TO ENLIST"

• Before the full-scale invasion, I was a military journalist and had visited a great many units. The army was becoming professional before our eyes, almost elite. And I had no thoughts of going to war. There was no active, dynamic fighting either. I even had a break in my work as a military journalist. I saw no point in going east to cover events because nothing was happeni