NPR London producer Morgan Ayre and Ukraine producer Kateryna Malofieieva contributed to this story.U.S. Here down south, their goal is to liberate Kherson, the regional capital.Īfter eight months of war, they are hoping for a little break and then a return to the fight.Īs Nikitin says: 'We are not going anywhere.' Nikitin says they weren't prophets, but they knew Russia would try to take the rest of Ukraine. Nikitin and Volovyk joined the army reserve six years ago, after the Russians invaded Crimea. 'No! No! We are engineers,' Nikitin recalls them saying.īefore the Russian could rally his fellow soldiers, Nikitin and the engineers took off. He then told the engineers to go shoot the Russian and any of his fellow soldiers. 'He looks at me, I look at him and he just jumps into the bushes,' recalls Nikitin. Nikitin recalls traveling with a team of engineers when they came across a Russian soldier in a field. The soldiers have had some heart-stopping moments. It's a reminder that, even with all the advanced technology, it's still hard to hit a moving target. Then they help guide a shell that just misses a Russian armored personnel carrier, enveloping it in a cloud of smoke. Their videos show them launching a drone from a parched field and setting up in an abandoned farmhouse. Their recon team, known as the 'Fireflies,' has its own Instagram account and YouTube channel. Ukrainian serviceman Stas Volovyk (left) and Anatoliy Nikitin (center) of the 'Fireflies' reconnaissance team operates a drone at the front line in Mykolaiv region on Aug. The two men offer an unvarnished view of the fighting and say the first days of the war were filled with confusion. Nikitin and Volovyk have fought in both environments and describe their on-the-job training as a mix of terror, adventure and black comedy. These days, they are using drones and artillery as part of a high-tech trench war in the farm fields of the country's' south. In the first month, soldiers used shoulder-launched missiles and hit-and-run tactics to defend Kyiv.

It was a really close call.' Fighting the war requires new skills nowĪs the war has changed over the months, Ukrainian fighters like Volovyk and Nikitin have had to adapt and learn new skills. 'Then the commander says, 'Oh, it's ours! It's ours!'' recalls Volovyk, who goes by the nickname Raptor. They took their positions, prepared the missiles. So, as the tanks approached, they hid amongst some trees and looked up a YouTube video on how to do so.

There was one problem: neither soldier had ever fired an NLAW.

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