After several years as a drone operator in the Ukrainian army, Ihor now sees a future in the defence industry. His goal is to work with testing and evaluation of reconnaissance drones, using experience from the front line to develop the next generation of systems.
When Nordic Defence Sector meets Ihor on Tjörn, an island near Gothenburg (western Sweden), he is taking part in the Help Ukraine Gothenburg veterans' programme Hug for Heroes, which supports wounded Ukrainian veterans in their recovery and return to working life. He is still formally employed by the Ukrainian army, but is in the process of leaving his post after losing a leg and undergoing lengthy rehabilitation.
Before the war, he worked as a film editor at a studio in Lviv. After joining the army, he became a drone operator focused on reconnaissance.
"I mainly flew DJI Mavic and Autel drones. Now I'm interested in working with larger reconnaissance drones, for example with testing and evaluation before the systems are delivered to the military," he says.
The plan is to undergo further training during the autumn before moving on to the defence industry.
"The experience from reconnaissance is still relevant. I know what the operator needs and what works in practice."
The path back to working life looks different for the veterans he meets.
"Some know exactly what they want to do. Others are still searching for a new direction. Many also want to leave everything behind and find a calmer life, perhaps in farming or out in nature."
But when it comes to his own future, the direction is already set. He hopes to bring his experience into the defence industry.
"My comrades are still out there. After I was wounded, the situation became even harder for them. They had to walk up to twenty kilometres with equipment to and from their positions, because vehicles risked being detected and engaged by FPV drones," he says.
He describes how his experiences from the front have made it difficult to return to the life he had before the invasion. "I could go back to my old job as a film editor, but it doesn't feel right. If I can't be there with them on the battlefield, I at least want to work on something that can make their job easier."
According to Ihor, there is also strong interest from the defence industry in veterans' experience.
"The companies I've been in contact with see the experience as valuable. Veterans aren't just welcome, they're in demand."
At the same time, he notes that the step up to larger and more advanced drone systems requires new skills.
"I haven't worked with larger reconnaissance platforms before, so that's naturally a disadvantage. But there are training programmes in Ukraine, and I believe companies are prepared to further train people who already have operational experience."
What veterans can contribute, he says, is a perspective that is difficult to gain in other ways.
"We've used the systems in real situations. We know what problems arise and what the operator actually needs. These are experiences that are hard to learn from reading alone."
He believes developments on the battlefield have already begun to change which types of drone systems are in demand.
"Small drones are facing more and more countermeasures. The large reconnaissance platforms have a strong future," he says.
According to Ihor, it is becoming increasingly difficult for simpler commercial systems to operate near the front line as both sides develop new methods to jam, detect and engage drones.
"When I started using the Mavic and Autel, they were very effective tools. But developments move fast. What worked one or two years ago doesn't always work the same way today."
He therefore sees a growing need for larger and more advanced reconnaissance platforms with longer range and greater resilience against various types of countermeasures.
At the same time, he believes front-line experience can contribute when the next generation of systems is developed.
"Even between the Mavic and the Autel there are big differences in how they behave in wind, how the video feed works, and what tends to break first. These are things that rarely appear on a spec sheet but matter a great deal in practice."
He returns several times to the point that veterans' experience is about more than having flown drones in combat.
"An engineer might have logged hundreds of hours in a simulator and still not know what the operator actually needs in the field. That experience only comes from using the systems in real situations."
To Nordic defence companies, he has a simple message:
"We veterans aren't looking for charity. We're looking for a place where our experience can be put to use. That's a big difference."