Locations“Our drones rescue people from under the rubble”
Oleksandr Bohachov operates the robots and drones that support rescue workers in the frontline city of Dnipro
Oleksandr is 27 years old. He studied at a military lyceum and later decided that emergency rescue would be his life’s work. Currently, he is a specialist in the unmanned aerial vehicles and robotics sector of the operational coordination centre of the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of (SES) Ukraine in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. He operates robots and drones for search and rescue operations in and around Dnipro.
He became a rescuer in Dnipro back before people were dying from shelling attacks. When neither he nor his colleagues knew what it meant to launch a drone high above the ninth floor and fly it up to a window, even late into the night, because the search could not stop. When they had not yet learned what it was like to find life behind that window and guide rescuers to rush in to save a person, hoping for a miracle.
Today, Oleksandr Bohachov’s team is perhaps the youngest in the sector. The team works with technology they didn’t even know existed when they started. Much of this equipment comes to the rescuers thanks to international partners, including the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine.
In the last year, the team had the opportunity to work with a robotic complex and drones that flew simultaneously. What does this mean in practice? Access to places and buildings that are too dangerous for rescuers to physically access, as well as added efficiency.
“I started this job in 2020. The first drones we worked with were Phantom quadcopters. Back then, we used them to survey the ecosystem — looking for people who set dry grass on fire and caused wildfires, or to inspect industrial sites. Today, the technology is different, and so are the tasks. Now our drones rescue people from under the rubble when the city comes under attack,” said Oleksandr.
Oleksandr responded to the first emergencies caused by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He went through extensive training. In 2023, the head office established a department of unmanned aerial vehicles and robotics, which Oleksandr led. Later, the department was reorganized, creating his current team.
Upon arriving at a rescue scene, the team of specialists launches a drone, which operates at the rescue site, while the operators control it remotely from a vehicle. They transmit the information received from the drone to rescue teams clearing the rubble.
“The drone we have, thanks to the help of the EU and UNDP, is very effective. It is a Matrice 350 model worth over 800,000 UAH (~19,000 USD). The device can operate for up to 40 minutes and has many functions. We use it for monitoring emergency zones. It allows us to obtain accurate data on the scale of destruction so we can quickly determine our plan of action. It also helps us keep our colleagues safe. We use it in training to practice tactics, coordination, and to analyse our responses from the air,” Oleksandr explained.
They last worked with this drone less than a month ago, during a large-scale forest fire in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, near the village of Mykolaivka. As the flames rapidly approached the settlement, lives were saved thanks to the deployment of drones. A thermal imager was connected, the drone was launched, the territory was surveyed, and the safest routes rescuers could take to extinguish the fire were determined. Now the drone performs work in the radiation and chemical safety unit.
The most memorable cases for Oleksandr are ones where he has to go to the sites of missile or drone strikes, working to find people under the rubble. During those tense moments, he feels how much the rescue depends on his every movement — his calmness, composure, and endurance.
“I will never forget the building at 118 Peremohy Street in Dnipro. It happened on 14 January 2023, when a nine-storey building collapsed because of a Russian missile strike and 46 people died. The air raid siren is going off and the electronic warfare equipment is activated; it is very difficult not to lose control of the drone. But you take responsibility, you launch it, because you have to look for people and rescue them. We check roofs and ‘zoom in’ on every collapsed window where people might be. It is important to remain calm, to find life in the ruins, and return the unmanned aerial vehicle to its launch site,” he said.
This material was prepared as part of the flagship “EU4Recovery — Empowering Communities in Ukraine” partnership between UNDP and the EU.
Photo credit: Maksym Kishka / Reporters / UNDP in Ukraine
