Ігор Вишневський War 17 December 2025, 09:00

"The instructor asked - are you lying that you have never flown on "wings"? IT-man and a veteran - about his journey in aerial reconnaissance, the liberation of the Kherson region and how society deceives itself about the war"

Victor from Aityte had been working hard to get the position of Frontend Developer for a long time — he had been striving for it and had done everything in his power even before the full-scale war. At his then company EVO, he was waiting for the opportunity to shine as a frontend developer, because he had been promised such a prospect while he was working as a technical specialist in support. However, without waiting for the opportunity, Victor resigned to realize his plans elsewhere. Unfortunately, a full-scale war intervened in these plans.

The beginning of the invasion: patrolling in the DFTG near Kyiv and work in the Kherson region

A month before the full-scale launch, I quit EVO. Before I got a job there, I completed front-end courses, and I started working at EVO just during Covid. No one wanted to hire someone without experience for front-end, and at EVO we agreed: if I show myself well, there is a great chance to develop and move to other specialties within this large structure.

For quite a long time I tried to transfer to the position of front-end developer through their internal program, but it didn’t work out. Although I showed top results in my support. I heard something like «You’re doing great here too, why bother? And we can’t transfer you because you don’t have experience in front-end.» So I decided to quit, and a month later the full-scale move began.

At that time, my family and I lived near Kyiv, on the highway towards the Desna River. From the first days, I joined the local DFTG, and also started to pick up everything that was needed at that time through volunteer channels, because I had been volunteering since 2014.

To the training center «Desna» brought materials, tools, power banks, armor from western Ukraine. We bought them in Ternopil, there we sewed plate carriers. All this information was transmitted by word of mouth.

In March 2022, I took my family to Poland, I have a wife and two children. The youngest daughter was only a few months old at the time, and the eldest was five years old. I stayed with my brother on the Desnianska highway in the DFTG, and we began to prepare for the worst.

We continued patrolling, roughly speaking, standing at checkpoints, until the situation near Kyiv improved. When the enemy troops retreated, we went to the Kherson region, because we were from there, and started helping there. Our native village was just on the verge of occupation, the orcs periodically came there, so our first task was to evacuate people from there.

We had a small group — me, my brother, and our comrade. My comrade had been a drone operator before the war, but not in a military context — that is, he filmed all sorts of cool stuff and was pretty good at working with a «mavic.» So, when we arrived in the Kherson region, we also started partisan activities, looking for orcs, and transmitting information from the drone to the brigades that were there.

Pretty quickly, we started getting teased by literally all the units in that sector. In 2022, there were problems with aerial reconnaissance, and drone work was clearly far from the level it is today. So literally every day we were either conducting reconnaissance, or adjusting fire, or working with dumps. And several brigades started asking us to cooperate with them more and more.

How I acquired aerial reconnaissance skills and officially mobilized

Usually, reconnaissance or fire adjustment was carried out in the morning, we did it for different units. Then my brother and I and our friend would go to a safe place and until the evening we would first practice conducting reconnaissance, and then work with resets. So every day my brother and I would practice under the strict guidance of our friend on Mavic drones, and later we also bought an Autel.

Since we took direct part in the liberation of the Kherson region and conducted reconnaissance for combat units, in addition to the traditional «mavik», we began to look for better solutions.

I agreed with the volunteers and received a set of Ukrainian-made «Krylo» type aircraft. They were simple and had just started to be produced, and we were one of the first to put them into operation. This was more in-depth reconnaissance: if the «Mavik» allowed us to fly 10 kilometers — our record was up to 13 km, then the plane allowed us to fly up to 50 km.

When we received this aircraft complex after the Mavic, we had to undergo training to use it, and we went to the manufacturer. Before receiving the complex, the training was supposed to last a week.

When we arrived, they put us at the computers, and we had to work with simulators for two days. But after two hours, the instructor asked us — you must be lying, saying that you had never flown on «wings» before? So either on the first day, or the next morning, we went to the field to fly real planes.

We were being pushed, because at that time the liberation of the Kherson region was underway, and we needed to do reconnaissance. There was no time to stretch the training. In our team, everyone complemented the other: someone was better at one thing, someone at another, someone at a third.

In the Kherson region, we had a photo flight that followed the right route and took 2,000 photos. And then you sit down, conduct a thorough review of those photos and look for targets. This type of reconnaissance is much more effective than others.

But at that time we were working as ordinary civilians. Over time, we thought that if, God forbid, something were to happen, we wouldn’t even have any guarantees from the state, because we were outside the military structures.

There were a lot of offers to mobilize to one or another brigade, because we had a lot of equipment, a lot of drones, and we had our own transport. That is, we were completely mobile. As a result, at the end of August 2022, we signed a contract with one brigade and started working only for it.

«Nobody tied our hands.» On service conditions and interaction with commanders

As for the army conditions of service, we were lucky that we were immediately able to find our brigade and our place in it. As I said, we were as autonomous as possible, no one tied our hands. Roughly speaking, we were given a sector in which we had to work, and we calmly carried out our tasks. It’s just that more and more tasks came, because in terms of intelligence we were one of the top groups.

What helped from previous experience? I had to process a large number of reconnaissance photographs, and the ability to work with various software allowed me to do it efficiently and quickly. In turn, communication with a large number of people gave me the opportunity to develop myself and develop the UAV direction.

For about six months, maybe more, my brother and comrade and I didn’t have any movements in various units, we just changed our deployment. We moved from Kherson region to Bakhmut, and from Bakhmut to Zaporizhia.

The only thing is that after moving to Zaporizhia, the guys went to another brigade because they were offered better conditions there. And I stayed in this one: I needed to recruit young guys and train them to perform the tasks that we had previously performed together.

Over time, the group grew, and accordingly, I became the commander of a new aerial reconnaissance unit. We worked the longest on the «wing» type UAVs, because they became our main work. It was in reconnaissance from the «wing» that we achieved top results, and our unit wanted to cover all structures.

In terms of service, I was very lucky that when we chose the brigade and the people we would have to work with, they kept their commitments.

We were told: «We will do everything to ensure that no one touches you — your task is simply to perform the task qualitatively.» And that’s what happened. So my commanders took all the bureaucratic negativity on themselves — they knocked on all the doors where necessary, and my task was to show the result. And so we had a wonderful symbiosis: my commander is one of those people who knows how to perform his tasks, and I, accordingly, mine. Because we performed our work qualitatively and were in demand, we had quite a lot of loyalty and various «buns».

On demobilization. «To save my family, for whom I went to the front»

In 2024, I demobilized, because I had legal grounds for it from the very beginning. As I said, at the beginning of the full-scale war, I immediately took my family abroad.

For those two and a half years, my family lived without me, except for a few brief meetings. It was quite difficult for both me and them. And my youngest daughter grew up without me at all.

My wife, who I took to another country with two young children, also had a hard time staying there. She left her successful job, career, and home and found herself with her young children in a foreign country with a different language.

Over these two and a half years, the difficulties only accumulated. When you go to the city, you see that many families continue to live their lives together, while military families are experiencing a long separation. Over time, I realized that I needed to, so to speak, save my own family, for which I went to the front. Because it turned out that it was the family that suffered the most.

As I said, I had the opportunity to resign from the very beginning, because I have certain family circumstances for this. Therefore, I had a clear agreement with the commander — if there is such a need, I will bring my unit to a state of autonomy, and I will be able to leave it when it shows the same results without me and performs the same tasks as with me. For this, I even had to lure a pilot from another brigade to take my place.

When all this happened, they gave me the «green light» and even helped me with some issues. No one put any «spokes in my way», I wrote a statement, everything was done according to the law.

A chance for a «young developer.» On adaptation to civilian life and a new job search

I received the status of UBD during my service, because, probably, 95% of the time at the front we were directly in the combat zone and performed tasks there. Therefore, I did not have any questions about this. I also cannot say about any benefits or guarantees from the state, because I did not apply for anything, respectively, I did not have any problems and hassle.

But as for work, when I was looking for a job, I knocked on all the open doors and went to companies that had programs for veterans. Including training programs. In addition, the only thing I did was use the services of a psychologist who worked with veterans on a volunteer basis.

After leaving the army, I tried for a long time to find a job both in the frontend and in the defense industry. But in the defense industry there was no option that would suit me in terms of location. Well, with the frontend in general, everything was bad: the situation on the market is already unfavorable, and what can we say about beginners. Plus, my age, my small amount of commercial experience, although I did perform some non-volunteer freelance projects.

I received offers from the military periodically, but I had to move with my family, and I didn’t want to do that at all.

But then I was finally given a chance as a «young developer,» so to speak. I hope everyone was happy with that! Because I just finished my three-month probationary period, and judging by the feedback, I finished it pretty well.

On volunteering and societal involvement in war

Now I have three main units that I try to continue to help as a volunteer. One is my own, the second is my brother’s unit, which continues to be at the front, and another is where my close friends are stationed. Therefore, they try to do everything possible and impossible for them.

I started volunteering back in 2014, so after being discharged from the army it would be strange if I didn’t continue it. While at the front, I did a lot of consulting for young pilots. I even had to give recommendations to instructors from the UAV manufacturing company we worked for. The management asked me for permission to provide my contact for an introduction to the course of events and assistance in the first stages.

Currently, my brother continues to serve, my brothers and close friends continue to serve, so at every opportunity I try to support and help them, especially since I know firsthand about all the difficulties.

As for society’s involvement in war, I made my conclusions a long time ago. Some people need it, some people don’t. I can’t fight it, because it’s everyone’s choice how to behave and how to live.

Yes, many things may be unpleasant to me, but I don’t beat myself up about it. Because guys who beat themselves up just get screwed, nothing good comes of it.

Someone transfers this negativity into their relationships, families, and so on. That’s why I have a completely different attitude towards it. For myself, I just try to do things so that I don’t feel guilty. And the choices of others and how they behave and what they say are their karma.

I’m sure many of them sleep worse than I do because of the choices they made.

Why mobilization fails

This is the result of the incompetent policy pursued by the Ukrainian authorities over the past four years, which has influenced society. And the result of the excellent work of the Russian special services, which are fueling all these processes.

Society was constantly fed promises — two more weeks until the end of the war, another month until the end of the war, the war would end by the New Year, and so on. Because of this, nothing was done for quality mobilization and to make it possible to conduct rotations for the military and give them rest.

If everything had started to be done correctly right away, I think we wouldn’t have such problems now. I had guys in related units who hadn’t been on vacation for a year or more. Well, excuse me, but where do you get motivation in such conditions? Under such conditions, you feel like a driven athlete, who is constantly being bet on and just waiting to see what will happen next.

I completely understand that some people don’t want to go to the front. Most of those who are fighting now wouldn’t want to be there either. It’s just that in some situations there was no other way out.

In 2022, we all understood perfectly well that we could die right now. But then there were queues at the TCC, because there were few options. When the options appeared, people began to choose between the scary and the easy. This is also understandable.

But to all this, the «marathon» was added, all sorts of bloggers, news that there will soon be an improvement or a truce. But nothing has happened for four years! So is it worth pinning your hopes on this and sitting around waiting for the borders to open?

Will the war end and when?

I think we need to learn history — then there will be no questions at all. If we simply compile statistics on the number of agreements signed with Moscow and the number of agreements broken by it, then these numbers will be equal to each other. As someone once said, a treaty with Moscow is not even worth the paper it is signed on.

I was sure that a big war would start sooner or later, back in 2013. And I understood that sooner or later it would be worse than now. That’s why in 2022, everything was prepared in our family: a basement, a backpack with everything we needed, and all the means in case of unforeseen circumstances. My wife didn’t believe me until the last moment, and now she keeps asking — how did you know that it would be like this? No way — it’s enough to just understand who we’re dealing with.

So if a pause in hostilities does occur, will it be a lasting peace? Not sure. This could be a period for the Kremlin to strengthen and us to weaken. Many people have already said that historically no one has been able to defeat Ukraine — it was «defeated» by the Ukrainians themselves. We ourselves are constantly destroying what is there from within.

As 2022 showed, when the rooster crows, everyone immediately mobilizes, gets together, and makes everyone around them shocked by how phenomenal it all looks. Together, we are all able to solve extremely complex issues. But as soon as we relax, quarrels, disagreements, «scams», theft begin again. Unfortunately, history teaches people nothing.

Many people believe that by moving away from the front, they remain, roughly speaking, safe. But even now, missiles and drones are killing people in the most remote corners of Ukraine. People still don’t realize that the front is getting closer and closer, and it won’t get any better. So we need to wake up and really, as they say, either to the front or for the front.

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