The Russian invasion of Ukraine has already caused enough loss and damage. It has been going for months and it continues to do so. However, 15-year-old Ukrainian Andriy Pokrasa refuses to just sit back and do nothing as he witnesses his country and fellow Ukranrains suffer.
According to ABC News, nearly 1,000 children have been killed or injured during the war, UNICEF estimates. In addition, more than 5 million Ukrainian children both in the country and living as refugees abroad are in need of humanitarian aid.
Andriy Pokrasa is being hailed as a hero in Ukraine. The teenager is known as the “Drone Boy” for his significant contribution to helping the Ukrainian military operation using his drone. The teenage boy and his father, Stanislav, volunteered for aerial reconnaissance work in the early days of the invasion, when Russian troops barreling in from the north made an ultimately failed attempt to take the capital and bring the country to its knees.
For a full week after the February 24 invasion, the two made repeated stories with their drone. They risked the possibility of being captured if Russian troops knew what they were doing. But what mattered to Andriy was doing anything he can to help Ukraine and its citizens.
How the Drone Boy helped the Ukrainian Military
- Soldiers were desperate at trying to track the position of a column of troops and tanks. These were heading to the capital in Ukraine, which did not have access to a drone in the early days of the invasion.
- Stanislav consulted the local defenders and told them his son knew how to fly drones, and he bought his own as a pastime. Not long after, the schoolboy, more used to skateboarding than military reconnaissance, helped direct strikes against the convoy.
- The teenager told Global News that the drones provided information about where approximately the Russian column could be. Their goal was to find the exact coordinates and relay them to the Ukrainian soldiers.
Andriy on tracking the coordinates
“It was one of the biggest columns that were moving on the Zhytomyr road and we managed to find it because one of the trucks turned on its lights for a long time.”
Thanks to the drones, Ukrainian soldiers targeted the column and were eventually able to stop the march on Kyiv altogether. “There were fuel trucks, tanks, artillery, armored personnel carriers,” he said. “I tracked them on a drone, they were in my picture. And then I opened the tab with the map on the drone and put a mark on it and the coordinates appeared there.”
Andriy said he passed the coordinates to Kasyanov, who passed them on to the Ukrainian artillery. The artillery decimated the column of Russian tanks within minutes.
On having to leave his country
As a top priority, Andriy Pokrasa, along with other Ukrainian children still had to be kept safe. While soldiers from Russia and Ukraine were battling for control of Kyiv’s outskirts, the Ukrainian soldiers were able to urge the Pokrasa family to leave their village. Apparently, Russian troops have almost occupied the area.
With all adult men up to age 60 under government orders to stay in the country, the elder Pokrasa couldn’t join his wife and son when they fled to neighboring Poland.
“I was happy that we destroyed someone,” he said. “I was happy that I contributed, that I was able to do something. Not just sitting and waiting.”
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The battle between Russia and Ukraine has cost unimaginable damage. Wars are never good for anyone but the very few people who benefit from them. Though we do not wish boys as young as Andriy did not have to go to great lengths, their situation needed his skills. Thus, his heroic contribution will always be remembered.
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