I’ve been stalked by Putin’s drones & seen bodies piled up on frontline…horrors of war will haunt us for decades to come

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AS they are stalked by Russian drones, medics on Ukraine’s frontline desperately try to save wounded soldiers while avoiding becoming targets themselves.

Nathalie Vlasenko left her beloved city of Odesa where she was a tour guide and ballerina to run towards the fighting when Vladimir Putin invaded in 2022.

Nathalie Vlasenko in a dugout on the frontlines[/caption]

Two destroyed ambulances that were allegedly targeted by Russians[/caption]

Graphic image of a wounded man receiving medical attention.

Injured Ukrainian soldier being treated at a stab point after being rescued by Frontline Medics[/caption]

Proudly wearing her black long-sleeved top emblazoned with the Ukrainian trident – a symbol of independence – Nathalie is ready for action at a moment’s notice as an interpreter and operations manager for Frontline Medics.

No day is the same and she often notes how it rarely begins with a cup of coffee.

Instead, she plays witness to amputations and war crimes.

Nathalie and her team of medics are forced to evade enemy fire as Russia specifically targets those trying to save the injured.

For three years she has watched on as people’s lives are reduced to ID numbers on black body bags.

Working in medical logistics on the frontlines means she witnesses when new weapons and tactics are deployed to the battlefields first hand.

At the beginning of the war, injuries were often caused by explosions and missiles, but now a new threat lingers and it’s not only soldiers being targeted.

Nathalie told The Sun: “The biggest threat at the front line are the drones because it’s not only reconnaissance drones, but drones which drop grenades or rockets or explosives.

“They can drop anything and with these explosives or pieces of shrapnel, the soldiers can get injuries – this is the biggest cause of injury.”

But the medics also have reason to fear the drones as Putin’s troops target their ambulances, stalking them as they work to save the lives of soldiers.

“I know from my own experience and experiences of colleagues that if you have a red cross on your car, it doesn’t guarantee that you will be untouched and nobody will target your ambulance,” she said.

“My colleagues told me they were just flying after or very close to their ambulance or vehicle.

“When I was in the Donetsk region, the chief doctor took me to the yard next to the hospital and there were dozens of ambulances, not camouflaged, but white ambulances with red crosses and they were all destroyed.

“It was the result of missile attacks or drone attacks…I also have colleagues working for Hospitallers and other medical NGOs which were the victims of attacks.”

When she first came to the frontline as a fixer for a journalist, Nathalie’s colleagues reporting on the news of the war were injured in Zaporizhia.

Photo of a hospital room with a body covered in a foil blanket.

The aftermath of trying to save men injured in artillery shelling that killed 200 soldiers[/caption]

A wounded soldier receiving medical attention.

Nathalie and her colleagues providing life-saving treatment on the frontline[/caption]

Nathalie helps retrieve the bodies of dead soldiers so they can be sent home for burial[/caption]

“They were in the car with the sign ‘PRESS’. So everything was visible, but there was a drone which was following them,” she said.

“It’s good they ran away from the car because if they stayed a few seconds more they would be killed because of the drone.”

FRONTLINE LIVING

Despite the dangers, Nathalie and her Frontline Medics colleagues hunker down for the night just three miles away from the fighting at stabilisation units, known as stab points.

The medics stay in blindazhes, makeshift underground bunkers built with sandbags, wood, and mud, waiting to be called over the radio by injured soldiers at the front.

Many soldiers are really tired…many of them are burned out, especially those who are fighting from the first days of the war…but most of them, they want to fight until the end.

Nathalie Vlasenko

“During the day, you sleep in this blindazh on a not-super-comfortable bed, and the toilet is outside, so you have to go out at night when it’s dark and use a hole in the ground as a toilet,” Nathalie explained.

When the team is called, the medics scramble from the underground bunkers into vehicles, sometimes armoured and sometimes not, equipped medical supplies to evacuate the casualties back to the stab point.

“So it’s just a line of evacuation, like casevac, medevac, stabilization point, and then hospital treatment,” Nathalie said.

But they have to be ready to go at any given moment with little knowledge of what they will encounter.

“You never know what will be tomorrow. You may make a plan, but tomorrow some explosion will happen or something will change in the situation at the front line,” she said.

Severely injured man on stretcher receiving medical attention.

Frontline Medics treat a wounded soldier so he is well enough for transportation[/caption]

Ukrainian frontline medics treating a deceased soldier.

Nathalie with a kitten while hunkering down for the night in a blindazh[/caption]

Ukrainian frontline medics treating a wounded soldier while under surveillance by Russian drones.

Nathalie Vlasenko taking part in training exercises with fellow frontline colleagues[/caption]

‘UNTIL THE END’

Despite troops and medics being “tired and burned out”, the fire to keep defending their nation continues to burn.

“It’s immensely hard and painful to see killed soldiers…delivered in black packages turning into another body with an identification number,” she said.

“You ask [soliders] questions, how they feel and they’re like, ‘I’m fine, I’m OK. I want to come back to the front line, to my guys, to my comrades.

“Even when they’re in the hospital or in stab points, I remember some of them asking, ‘How soon can I come back to my guys? I want to do something.’

“Many soldiers are really tired…many of them are burned out, especially those who are fighting from the first days of the war…but most of them, they don’t want to give away our lands for free.

“They want to fight until the end.”

As the world hopes to start looking beyond the conflict, Nathalie is already preparing, with hopes to work in the mental and physical rehabilitation of soldiers and other frontline personnel.

“It will be complicated for them,” she admitted when everyone has to “adapt to civilian life”.

British AS90 artillery gun firing in Ukraine.

British-made artillery gun AS90 fires onto Russian targets in the east of Donbas Ukraine around 10 kilometres from the front lines[/caption]

Ukrainian frontline medics receiving training in a wooded area.

Nathalie helps give life-saving medical training[/caption]

A house burns at the scene of a bombing after Russian forces launched a missile at a residential area, killing at least three people in Donbas[/caption]

Nathalie, who has been documenting the realities of the frontline on Instagram, has shared how cats have become key in providing some mental support to medics and troops.

Some images show wounded soldiers still covered in dirt and blood with small kittens perched in their uniformed laps in a desperate bid to give them some comfort from the bloodshed.

Sharing a photo of herself cradling a cat, Nathalie wrote: “My anti-stress is at the stab point.

“Today is a terrible day and all the news. Just a black hole inside and some numbness.”

As politicians get swept up in peace talks and territory negotiations, Nathalie has resorted to keeping her head down and carrying on.

RISE OF DRONE WARFARE

By Iona Cleave

Ukraine has become increasingly reliant on first-person-view (FPV) drones — nimble, target-seeking, kamikaze unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Since early 2023, the cheap, explosive, flying machines have become one of Kyiv’s biggest success stories after its military ran perilously short on munitions due to long-stalled Western weapon shipments.

The attack UAVs have come to define the conflict, helped by constant streams of footage filmed onboard as they tail troops, blast Russian positions or smash into tanks worth millions with ruthless precision.

The potent quadcopters cost around £300, are largely made from off-the-shelf pieces of kit and as demand soars, an army of civilians are helping to assemble them in their homes.

Some are fitted with grenades or homebuilt bombs, others are used for reconnaissance missions to identify enemy positions and guide artillery fire.

Now, almost every fighting brigade in Ukraine has an assault drone company.

With the 600-mile front frozen in hellish trench warfare, the success of FPVs on the battlefield is “undeniable”, according to the commander of Ukraine’s attack drone operations.

Over two thirds of Russian tanks destroyed by Ukraine in 2024 have been taken out using FPV drones, a Nato official told Foreign Policy.

Their long-range capabilities also save countless lives as the drone operator can be stationed away from the frontline.

And drones are not just used on the battlefield, both Ukraine and Russia are hitting targets hundreds of miles deep into enemy territory using long-range UAVs.

They are highly cost effective means to blitz factories making weapons, military bases or energy facilities.

And yet, in a constant game of cat and mouse, both sides are developing increasingly sophisticated means of stopping drones using electronic warfare.

In response, Russia and Ukraine are racing to develop UAVs guided by AI instead of GPS that can easily be jammed.

Ukraine is counting on key allies to help in this mission and to send them more expensive, high-tech drones, but deliveries are not anywhere near the sufficient scale needed.

“I just try not to make any forecast, just continue doing my work and what I can do, my input, helping my country, working with my foreign medics,” she said.

“Just doing what I can do, because I can’t influence on the world politics and geopolitics and everything.

“I was not ready for the war, so I didn’t know I would do this kind of work. but I’m glad I can do something good for my country.”

In the meantime, she has learned to appreciate simple things and urges those lucky enough not to live in a warzone to do the same.

She said: “It’s things like a shower, electricity, having water all the time, having opportunity to have a cultural life, and to just go and enjoy your cup of coffee without any air raids or explosions.”

Nathalie is sharing her story along with other Ukrainian frontline fighters as part of a wider Ministry of Defence campaign, Frontline of Freedom.