Dr Greg Mills, Alfonso Prat Gay, Juan-Carlos Pinzon and Dr Karin von Hippel
Underground in an anonymous building in the Kharkiv Oblast is one reason for Ukraine’s defensive prowess against a numerically stronger and well-armed aggressor. Military teams work from makeshift briefing and ops rooms leading off corridors stacked with dusty and discarded office furniture, intently focused on an array of computers that access, control and act on live feeds from the battlefield.
‘Attention’, says one member, standing up, his voice slightly raised, and the room instantly stills. ‘There will be a Russian helicopter attack at 1230’. His warning gives soldiers on the front a mere 10 minutes to pack up their artillery and move it discretely away.
It is a high-stakes gaming saloon, complete with Ninja-pro gaming chairs and many donning heavy metal goth T-shirts. ‘The toughest lesson’, remarks one commander, codenamed ‘Cuba’, is the ‘cost of a mistake, in many cases irreversible’.
The previous day, 11 Russian tanks had attacked the Khartiia Brigade positioned north of Kharkiv. Five tanks were knocked out by a mix of missiles, artillery and mines dropped by drones.
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