“The first drones, which began the history of “Achilles” as a regiment of unmanned systems, were handed over to the fighters by Volodymyr Klitschko.”, — write: www.unian.ua
The first drones, which began the history of “Achilles” as a regiment of unmanned systems, were handed over to the fighters by Volodymyr Klitschko.
Oles MalyarevichToday, the 429th separate regiment of unmanned systems “Achilles” receives 90% of its funding from the state through taxes and international support. Another 10% are direct donations from Ukrainians. But at the beginning of 2022, everything was the opposite. The commander of the regiment Yuriy Fedorenko and his deputy Oles Malyarevich told about it.
“After we entered the Line of Drones project, 90% of the funding is billions of hryvnias! – allocated at the expense of state financing, at the expense of taxes paid by Ukrainians, as well as at the expense of the support of our partners. And 10% are direct donations from the Ukrainian people. But in the size of the regiment, this 10% is millions of hryvnias. There is a range of equipment, ammunition, drones that we we receive centrally from the state. And there are those that we buy on our own. By the way, purchasing directly is an initiative of President Zelensky,” Yuriy Fedorenko said.
However, at the beginning of a full-scale invasion, the military was cut off from supplies and obtained weapons and drones through people they knew and cared about. In particular, as the deputy commander of the “Achilles” regiment, Oles Malyarevich, said, it was possible to obtain weapons at one of the warehouses of the Ministry of Internal Affairs only by showing the passport of a citizen of Ukraine.
“On the first day, each of us was given an assault rifle, 4 magazines and 120 cartridges. The very next day, we advanced to the Kyiv region and realized that with such a large number of weapons we could not do anything in principle, because we were cut off from any supply. Through acquaintances, I went to the warehouses of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which at that time were actively being disbanded, because there was a threat of their destruction. Imagine a civilian who comes only with his passport and receives two weapons,” said Oles Malyarevich.
And the first drones, which began the history of “Achilles” as a regiment of unmanned systems, were handed over to the fighters by Volodymyr Klitschko.
“Vladimir Klitschko gave us 2 Maviks in Kyiv. I accepted them because, as a cinematographer, I understood that you could use them to shoot something from the air. He brought them to our positions. It was 300 meters from the Russians. Two days later, we used these Maviks and found 3 tanks. From this, we can say, the history of artillery air reconnaissance “Achilles” began, Oles noted. Malyarevich.
It will be recalled that “Achilles” was formed by volunteers on February 24, 2022 as the rifle company of the 128th battalion of the 112th brigade of the TRO. Later, the company became a company of shock BpAK, and then a battalion, which in January 2025 was scaled to a separate regiment. The main tasks are aerial reconnaissance, as well as fire damage to the enemy’s forces and means with the help of a wide range of unmanned systems. The unit took part in the battles for Kyiv, the counteroffensive in Kharkiv region, as well as in the battles in Donetsk region, in particular for Bakhmut and Kupyansk. Thanks to its efficiency, the regiment is consistently among the top units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine.