Ukraine

Reversing a position it took last year, Canada’s government says it is sending cutting-edge surveillance cameras for use on Turkish military drones in armed conflict ­– this time in Ukraine.

Eyes on Ukraine, a Dutch volunteer group, says it’s bringing 187 DJI Mini 2 drones to Ukraine so “we all can see” what Russia is doing to the East European nation. The group says it will strive to get as many drones as possible in the air over Kyiv and all other places in Ukraine where fighting is going on “so the truth will not perish in this war.”

Among the large number of heroes in the Ukraine’s determination to repel invading Russian armed forces is a mid-size, locally made drone known as the Punisher – something of a weaponized step-up vehicle from consumer craft to the formidable Turkish-built Bayraktar TB2 UAVs also being flown in the country’s defense. As Team Putin might woefully attest, the pint-size Punisher has been living up to its name.

Countless awe-inspiring stories of courage and grit have come out of Ukraine in the past few days. One such act of bravery was highlighted by Liubov Tsybulska, an advisor to the Ukrainian government, over the weekend. Tsybulska said a woman in Kyiv had taken down a Russian drone by slinging a jar of cucumbers at it from her balcony. “How did they expect to occupy this country?” she asked her followers on Twitter.

In the wake of the Russian shelling of Ukraine’s enormous Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, contamination detection specialist US Nuclear Corp. says it is sending one of its specialized DroneRAD UAVs to Ukrainian authorities to help monitor the facility’s reactors for potential radiation leaks.

A group of Finnish volunteers has hand-delivered 140 DJI Mavic Mini drones to the Ukrainian military to assist with reconnaissance efforts against the invading Russian forces.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has called upon citizens who own drones to use them in support of the country’s armed forces in their battle to prevent the invading Russian Army from capturing the capital, Kyiv.