CHRISTINA LAMB
The female drone army carrying the fight to Putin
Ukraine is burning through 10,000 machines a month but finding operators is the real problem
Lilya Khrustalova, a doctor, is one of the first female drone instructors, teaching male soldiers about combat flying
PAULA BRONSTEIN FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
The Sunday Times
Night after night for the last month, Kristina Shostak, a flautist in the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, stood at her window and watched Russian missiles and drones light up the sky. Last Thursday one killed a nine-year-old girl, just a few months older than her own daughter Solomaniya.
That day Shostak, 43, was finally able to do something. After months of waiting, she stood in a scrubby park south of Kyiv with a wedding planner, a policewoman and a journalist, watching intently as a soldier with the call-sign Dinamo held up a console and a small, plastic orange-and-black drone. “You are taking part in a serious mission, learning how to protect our city and country, and together we will win,” Dinamo told them at the world’s
