“It led the way for three lost groups”: Ukrainian troops tell the story of a drone that became their battalion's symbol

A soldier used a Matrice 300 drone to help three Ukrainian groups of soldiers get out of a danger zone and back to their positions on the Bakhmut front. The National Guard's Rapid Response Brigade said the drone was then dubbed the Star of David. The events took place in April 2023.

Following a rainstorm at around 02:00, the ground was covered in fog.

Visibility was so poor that two groups of crew members who had gone to pick up the wounded went off their route and got lost. A third group of reconnaissance men went to search for them but could not locate them.

Photo: Rubizh National Guard Rapid Response Brigade

A soldier who went by the alias of Buhai then decided to use a drone, although he was sure it would not be able to function in such conditions. "I wouldn't have found them that way, but I could give them a reference point.

For this purpose, I chose a point. It was a cemetery near Chasiv Yar. I flew the drone up to 100 metres, so I could see the road, then flew 3 km away from Chasiv Yar and raised it by another 200 metres.

Then I switched on all the navigation lights, the bottom light and the strobe," Buhai says.

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The first crew to see the light from the drone was the group travelling in an armoured combat vehicle, then the group of reconnaissance men, and then the group that had gone to fetch the wounded. Every 10 seconds, Buhai flew the drone 100 metres and waited 10 seconds for his brothers-in-arms to see the direction of the drone's movement.

This is how the drone led the soldiers back to their initial positions. Ever since then, the drone has had a symbolic alias, the Star of David, and is a symbol of the 2nd Battalion of the Rapid Response Brigade, military unit No.

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