In the border Semyonovka in the Chernihiv region, a 12-year-old boy independently neutralized an FPV drone that was flying towards where his younger brothers and sisters were. The incident occurred on April 18, when the child was on the street near the house.
Suspilne reports this.. As the guy himself said, he noticed a drone that was initially moving in the other direction, but then began to change its trajectory in the direction of the children.
Realizing the danger, he decided to act and in a few seconds damaged the fiber optic control channel of the drone, effectively depriving it of control. After this, the drone lost control and fell about a hundred meters from people, into the bushes.
" As soon as I sat down, I looked - he was upstairs. I say: “That’s it, 15 seconds, and I tear it up.”! My nephew runs out and shouts: “Tear! I tear up and see that he began to accelerate upward, because he loses control and begins to fall. We are already prepared for what is about to explode. But the drone fell 100–150 meters away from us into the bushes,” the guy said.
The guy noted that he received his skills in handling optical fiber from military acquaintances with whom he had contact during domestic work in the forest. According to him, then they explained to him how in rare cases one can react to such situations.
" We were friends. They sawed the wood, and when they cut down the last tree, there was this fiber on it. And he showed, said: " And already instinct worked, because there were three of our own, and three more that were not mine (brothers and sisters - ed.. ),"
He himself admits that he did this for the first time and at the moment felt great fear, which disappeared only after the threat had passed. " Yes, the fear of the “martyr” still exists. But having lived in Semyonovka, when it flew overhead, it wasn’t scary,” says the child.
The boy’s father said that at first he didn’t even understand what exactly happened, but later realized the scale of the situation. He noted that the son remained calm and actually saved the younger children. The family emphasizes that Anatoly is the eldest child and often helps care for the younger ones.
Operations director of the Kruk UAV operator training center Nikita Gavrilenko noted that such FPV drones usually work in conjunction with another reconnaissance drone, which adjusts their route.
In such conditions, any extraneous actions can change the course of the operation, but also create additional danger for the person who interferes with the control of the equipment. “If this drone from a height of 300 meters sees a boy who decides that everything is working out for him, and begins to neutralize these drones: cut, tangle the optical fiber. What happens next? Then this boy will become a priority target, because he is in the way,” says the expert.
After the incident, the boy’s family moved to Chernigov due to the security situation in the border village. Now they are planning to formalize the status of internally displaced persons. The family as a whole has five children.
The guy himself is in seventh grade and says that after his experience he became even more interested in technology.. His hobby became mechanics, as well as helping his father repair cars and agricultural equipment..
Anatoly admits that he would like to connect the future with work in the field of unmanned systems and military technologies. He says he is interested in understanding how drones work and how they can be neutralized. His main desire is for the war to end as quickly as possible..