'Peaky Blinders' devastate Russians with drone attacks

Ukrainians fight in caps with motto 'To Find and Destroy'

- BARNEY DAVIS

A group of volunteers who bonded over their love of Peaky Blinders have become one of Kyiv's most-feared military units claiming to have killed hundreds of Russian soldiers in Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

At the beginning of Russia’s invasion, the group of civilians turned out to defend their hometowns armed only with shotguns like the Shelby gang in the television hit. But after three years of intense fighting, the unit – named The Peaky Blinders – has evolved to become one of Kyiv’s deadliest drone squads.

They play out a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, launching cheap, mass-produced drones to drop bombs on tanks and enemy foxholes while dodging Russian retaliation in the forests in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. The region is the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

Their weapons, controlled by remote, cost up to £800 and the unit can lose on average six a day if the wind is particularly strong. Nearly 85 per cent of daily Russian casualties occur in the area as Putin’s forces, referred to as Orcs by the unit, try to capture the whole of the Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk regions.

The National Guard unit became known for their staunch defence of Vovchansk, a city in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine that has essentially been destroyed by fighting. In October 2024, they were sent to defend the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk. The city is a key target for Russia and they have thrown waves of troops at trying to seize it.