In the middle of the mud, drones, trenches and despair, an empty boat of fried potatoes Pringles He has achieved what hundreds of projectiles sent from the West do not: stop fighting a Russian armored vehicle. The scene is neither a joke nor a fair experiment. It happened at the beginning of 2024 in Avdivka, a city of Donbás for which Russia had sacrificed men and armored for months, when the creator the invention is called Vadim Adamov had in his possession a DJI Mavic drone, explosives of walking at home, a cylindrical boat of the famous potatoes and a mission: resist.
“I do not need your whores American bullets,” Mascullaba Adamov while filling the boat with sulfate and plastic explosive, according to the web before tie it to the drone and throw it against a Russian armored vehicle. The impact was accurate, leaving the military vehicle out of combat, which other projectiles topped shortly after.
The case, strangely that it seems, is not an eccentricity. It is, in reality, the reflection of a way of fighting that the Ukrainian army has adopted almost out of necessity. The lack of supplies, the temporary break of the sending of weapons and help from the US at the end of 2023, as well as the stagnation of the front, have made the ingenuity a more valuable resource than any guided missile. Because in this new war logic, the key is no longer who has the most expensive weapon, but who knows how to use the cheapest efficiency.
Drones, potatoes and a war of adolescents
Vadim Adamov’s case is not something unique. In Lyman, to the northeast of the country, drone pilots, some of them kids under twenty years, check the recordings in which explosions are seen in Russian positions. Next, another pilot trains with FPV glasses (first -person view), while drawing obstacles and learns to accurately place your explosive loads. The mechanics remembers that of a video game and in part it is: there are rankings, virtual, rewards and even a bonus system for each armored that is destroyed. “The best thing you can do if you hear one is to make the dead. Although it is so close, you are probably already dead,” jokes one.
The “gamification” of war coexists with an industry that has mutated at full speed. Ukraine produced 2.2 million drones in 2024 and hopes to double that figure this year. Not only manufactures kamikaze drones or FPV models for surveillance, it is also responsible for developing platforms for sea and earth. In February 2025, at a conference he organized BraveOne In kyiv, a non -manned land vehicle capable of transporting food and ammunition in front was presented. “The idea is that the pilot is in a safe zone. The less soldiers are used on the ground, the more lives we save,” explains one of the company’s designers Ukrainian Unmanned TechnologiesSasha Rubina.
A Pringles, a drone and a war of wear
The metaphor cannot be more eloquent. While Russia displays weapons that cost hundreds of thousands of euros, Ukraine responds with explosives mounted on $ 1.50 snack boats. The important thing is no longer the wrapping, but the functionality. What was previously an aeromodelling hobby, today makes the difference between living or dying in the front.
The technological career between the two countries has become fierce. For each Ukrainian drone intercepted with signal inhibitors, Russia launches models connected by fiber optic cable. In response, Ukraine forays their positions with physical networks to stop the impact. It is a digital chess in which each play force a reaction. But behind all this engineering there are basements, converted factories and adolescents who set up their own drones with separate pieces: propellers, batteries, microcámaras. And a lot of patience.
The scene reminds a FP workshop more than a barracks. But in this asymmetric war, where morality is for the soils and the number of soldiers has plummeted since the failure of the 2023 counteroffensive, the ingenuity counts more than the gunpowder. The important thing is not to have the most sophisticated weapon, but hit without rest. A can, a drone and another armored.
