Interview with TERRA unit commander Nikolai Volokhov

09/15/2024 – Translated from Ukrainian via Google and OFP

The TERRA aerial reconnaissance unit is part of the unmanned systems battalion of the 3rd separate assault brigade and is one of the best in Ukraine. The guys destroy enemies and carefully keep statistics of liquidations – they compare with the work of their comrades and keep themselves in good shape to stay “on the level”.

In an interview with OBOZ.UA, TERRA unit commander Nikolai Volokhov, call sign “Abdullah”, spoke about how the unit was formed, what made it possible to achieve such results, why drones will never replace humans on the front lines, and what Ukraine needs to defeat the Russians.

– How was the unit created?

– The TERRA unit was created on the first day of the full-scale war in Kyiv.

We are a group of friends who have known each other for over ten years, and have done historical reconstruction together. We are all members of the Ukrainian national team at the Battle of the Nations competition. Two of us already had combat experience by the time the full-scale invasion began. From day one, my friend with the call sign “Taxi Driver” and I participated in the ATO, in 2014-2015 – the battles for Ilovaisk, for Maryinka and two Shyrokyne operations.

When the first missiles hit Kyiv, we gathered and started thinking about how we would defend our hometown. We were in Bucha and Irpen. I can’t say that we had anything very active there. There was confusion and chaos of war.

Then we joined the Troops unit and received weapons. Given my experience, I already understood the tactics of urban combat. In fact, all we needed was heavy weapons to inflict fire damage on the enemy by moving around the city. In short, machine guns and grenades for urban combat. We got it. But thank God, it didn’t come to urban combat in Kyiv.

Then, by the will of fate and by order of the command, we were transferred to the Kherson region. We were based in Nikolaev and fought. Then the Russians pushed us out almost completely from the Kherson region, we held only a few settlements – a large campaign of battles for the Kherson region awaited us. Then, in fact, we began to realize ourselves as an aerial reconnaissance unit, a unit of unmanned technologies.

– Did you have to learn everything yourself?

– We started with artillery fire adjustment. We gained our first invaluable experience thanks to close cooperation with several units. This was the 28th separate mechanized brigade and, in particular, a very talented artilleryman with the call sign “Surgeon”, the 131st separate reconnaissance battalion. We were taught the correct method of adjusting artillery fire by a GUR colonel, at that time the chief of intelligence of the defense commandant’s office of the city of Nikolaev, with the call sign “Odysseus”.

Artillery fire was adjusted effectively. Our main “trump card” was destruction in the artillery game. That is, in order to identify the enemy’s artillery position, we adjusted fire on the enemy’s front line. The enemy exposed his artillery positions, and the artillery, which had a longer range, at that time with more experienced spotters, waged counter-battery combat – artillery against artillery.

Then we managed, adjusting the MLRS “Grad” of the 28th brigade, to destroy a battery of Russian guns deployed in the field with one salvo. We adjusted, we found, we destroyed, for which even the President of Ukraine noted us.

That’s where it all started. We were still part of Troops, but already an experienced one, and then, in close cooperation with the 28th Brigade, we began to destroy Russians with artillery and develop UAV technologies. We bought new drones with more powerful cameras, developed radio communications on these drones, improved and mastered methods of finding the enemy and adjusting fire on him.

Somehow we caught ourselves thinking that if we take the statistics of “Ukrainska Pravda” on the destroyed artillery systems of the enemy, then during the adjustment of the TERRA unit at one point in the Kherson campaign, 1% of all artillery was destroyed by the means of the 28th brigade. Conventionally speaking, it was written there that 1000 guns were destroyed, and we destroyed 10 at that time – with objective confirmation, that is, with video.

We were able to achieve this result thanks to close cooperation with the 131st separate reconnaissance battalion, in particular with a fighter with the call sign “DeepRecon”, who taught us methods and techniques of conducting reconnaissance and systematizing information.

It was these teams – the 28th Brigade, Odyssey from the GUR and the 131st Separate Reconnaissance Battalion – who taught us, explained – and we set off.

– How did you end up in the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade?

– When the Kherson campaign came to its logical conclusion and the Russians fled, we joined the 98th separate battalion of the territorial defense of Dnipropetrovsk region in search of the next front. The battalion commander was my friend “Radik”, Rodion Kudryashov, now deputy commander of the 3rd separate assault brigade. We fought with him back in 2014-2015 as part of the battalion, and then in the “Azov” regiment. He called us. We managed to quickly, in 20 days, take part in the battles for the Zaporizhia direction.

And then the 3rd separate assault brigade was formed, in the form in which it exists now. The commander of the 3rd separate assault brigade, Andrey Beletsky, with whom we maintained communication, invited us to join, which we did with pleasure.

And as part of the battalion tactical group of the 3rd Assault Brigade, we were sent to Bakhmut. This was our first campaign as part of the 3rd Assault Brigade. It was very “hot” there. That is why I consider Andrey Beletsky’s decision not to send the entire brigade to Bakhmut, but to first go in with a relatively small group, including special equipment and control components, very wise.

We joined the battalion tactical group, participated in the battles for Bakhmut, and then deployed in the Bakhmut direction with the entire brigade based on TERRA. Then the 3rd separate assault brigade formed a tactical group and I was appointed as the head of unmanned systems. And based on TERRA, we actively transferred the experience we had gained in the Kherson region to the 3rd separate assault brigade.

During the Bakhmut campaign, we were entrusted with building a company of unmanned aerial vehicles. These were battles for the suburbs and battles in the city itself, an operation to liberate Andreyevka and to push the Russians back beyond the railroad.

The next stage is the Avdeevka operation. Very complicated, very chaotic. We were losing Avdeevka, and the forces there had to be withdrawn. The 3rd separate assault brigade and TERRA in its composition were given the task of covering this withdrawal. We were urgently thrown there, like firefighters, there was very little time to prepare.

It was already clear then that unmanned systems were a very promising thing. And at that moment, before the Avdiivka operation, Andrey Beletsky lobbied and gave us the opportunity to expand from a company to a battalion. That is, the 3rd separate assault brigade received a battalion of unmanned systems. And we – the three of us, a club of fighting friends, who are TERRA – took an active part in the formation of this battalion. The experience that the fighters had allowed them to now take leadership positions, engage in management, to develop and pass on skills. For example, a fighter with the call sign “Thor”, Nikita Sidorchenko, using the experience of his civilian profession, management in the banking sector, took on the headquarters. And this is a really difficult area.

So far this battalion is one of the best in Ukraine by objective parameters. We carefully keep statistics, compare with comrades how many enemies were destroyed.

– What is TERRA doing now?

– After the Avdeevka direction, we were transferred to the Kharkov region, where the situation was also very difficult. However, the 3rd separate assault brigade managed to stabilize it. The last operation of the 3rd assault, in which the battalion of unmanned systems participated: we, not being in the initiative, in order to reduce this assault pressure of the Russians, carried out a counterattack, recaptured two kilometers with fewer forces.

Currently, the TERRA unit is inside, under the control of the unmanned systems battalion. We continue to be deployed in the Kharkov direction.

We actively participate in the drone community of Ukraine. We communicate with units such as “CODE 9.2”, “Asgard”. We maintain communication with the community, because we must constantly share information in order to develop. Including maintaining contacts with units that will form the Unmanned Systems Forces. We also share experience in the “unmanned club”.

We started with artillery, then in the Bakhmut direction we mastered the technology.

By the way, if we talk about the importance of exchanging experience, I should note that, for example, during the Bakhmut operation, we were among the first in the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade to master FPV technology and be able to use it properly, for which we are grateful to the Asgard team and its commander with the call sign “German”. This team has destroyed 150 enemy tanks to date, which is a record. They taught us, and we also began using FPV drones.

– What kind of drones do you work with?

– At first we were reconnaissance and spotters. We flew Mavics, Matrices, found targets and destroyed them, adjusting artillery fire. We also dropped ammunition from Mavics. We have a fighter with the call sign “Zhora”, Stanislav Voronkov, who personally destroyed more than a hundred Russian infantrymen with drops. And he was even able to set a Russian tank on fire with drops from a small Mavic. “Zhora” is a pioneer in mastering drops.

Then “Zhora” developed this direction into a more global one, transferred experience to the battalion and to a specialized company – now many on specialized means, no longer on Mavic, perform complex tasks of various profiles.

And the fighter with the call sign “Taxi Driver”, Pavel Komarenko, having adopted the FPV experience from “Asgard”, took this direction under his wing, and now he is the commander of the specialized company of attack drones in the battalion of unmanned systems. The military developed it and proved its efficiency indicators – at its peak, our hit rate was 60-70%.

– From the point of view of your experience, can we say that this war is moving into a new, technological stage?

– There is one component in war that has not yet been invented and, it seems, will never be invented to replace it. This component is infantry.

This is assault infantry, mechanized infantry, it cannot be replaced by anything, but drones can significantly ease the tasks of these people who bear the main burden of war. We can significantly reduce the burden that lies on their shoulders, saving their lives and health, using unmanned technologies. The key phrase here is precisely unmanned, that is, without human participation. We eliminate the stress factor and the risk factor for human life by the fact that this technology is unmanned. Imagine if there was a person in every GUR or SBU ship that crashes into a Russian ship…

How terrible that would be. And there is no one there. There is no one in the drones, which we are losing, unfortunately, a lot. It is the unmanned component that helps save the infantry.

Some futuristic vision is a war of robots. Minimize human participation in risks, minimize human participation in direct combat, or at least make it so that this person – an attack aircraft or a machine operator, or a reconnaissance man – in this direct combat is maximally safe with unmanned technologies. So that a drone can look around the corner, so that a drone can demining, so that a drone can conduct reconnaissance, so that the work that we can transfer to unmanned technology, we transfer to it. The most expensive military resource is trained people, even if we talk about the economic component, not to mention the humane position. To train and equip an infantryman is crazy money. In addition, he accumulates invaluable experience, and by preserving it, we preserve the chain of experience in the army.

So yes, we do not exaggerate the importance of drones, this is a look at the future, but drones will not replace infantry. There is no talk of this at all for now. They should save as much as possible, but if we are talking about futurism – yes.

– Do you cooperate with Ukrainian drone manufacturers?

– Yes, we cooperate with a large number of companies. We receive drones from them, we consult, we maintain feedback. In war, there are components of the war itself, and there are components of its support. And in the support component, in order to get a means that will work as it should, one of my tasks is to maintain communication with talented manufacturers. My task is to give them information so that they develop a drone that, when it comes to me or to my comrades, would complete its combat mission and destroy the enemy unit. But we do not work with everyone. Firstly, there is no time, and secondly, we try to distinguish the real ones from those in which it is not worth investing time.

If I see that the team is focused on creating a good product, we share our experience, provide all the information. There are many groups that we cooperate with.

– Meanwhile, the enemy is also developing unmanned technologies – are we keeping up with them? Do we have anything to counter?

– Yes, we have something to counter. At present, the Russians dominate in numbers.

We are asymmetrical with Russia. If we were symmetrical with them, we would have lost long ago, because according to symmetrical parameters, if we take Russia as the first player – more people, more tanks, more weapons, more money, more diplomatic ties, more of everything. But we are asymmetrical, war includes thousands, like a model of the physics of the real world, millions of parameters that are very difficult to count.

One thing I can say for sure – we are asymmetrical. Yes, they have more, in some places they are even better than us, in some things we are better than them, but it is enough for us to be able to hold the line and even counterattack. We have something to counter – for example, the Unmanned Systems Forces project. The state, thank God, is doing better now compared to 2014-2015. I am actually happy. The situation is not ideal now, but I am happy that the Unmanned Systems Forces have been created, strong teams have been added to them, and a good budget has been allocated for them.

Returning to asymmetry. Do we sink Russian ships? Yes, we do. But they don’t sink ours because they don’t have any, but it’s still asymmetry. But the Russians spend billions of dollars on these ships, they have missiles. Their combat tactics are based on these missiles, by taking this equipment out of the game we ruin their plans, it’s asymmetrical.

Ukraine is expanding in drone production, there are more and more such companies, a state order and the Unmanned Systems Forces have appeared. This is our bet, such competence centers, where the smartest ones will be gathered, they will think carefully about what and from whom to order, and we will order. Will we surpass them quantitatively? In war, if anyone knew what would happen… no one knows the future. But the course has been set.

We must not forget that Russia is a huge monstrous system, stricken with diseases, terrible corruption, etc. And if they bring a million, even a billion drones, but because of these diseases of large systems these drones will not fly, we will bring a hundred thousand, but which will fly.

– What do we need to win?

– There are several answers. The first is objective, no one knows, there are no instructions on how to win. All generals and colonels are prepared for past wars, and this is the reality of the world. The second answer is simple – destroy all the katsaps who came to our land. Then victory will come, we will restore our borders, Russia will suffer terrible losses, this will make it such that it will not be able to repeat aggression. And the third answer is what we discuss with friends.

For example, when Lance Armstrong, a cyclist, was asked, “What do you do when you’re really struggling and you want it to be over?” he replied, “I gather up every last drop of energy I have, and I start pedaling as hard as I can. Just because I want it to be over. And I think the harder I pedal, the sooner it will be over.”

So everyone needs to push the pedals as hard as possible. The more we want this to end in victory, the harder everyone needs to push the pedals, and then it will definitely end.

https://u24.gov.ua

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