Fallout of War: Ukraine Year Three

De: H. Peter Alesso

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

The war ground into its third year and Lieutenant Commander James Fairbanks now coordinated drone operations that shape battlefield outcomes across southern Ukraine.

His team, eight Ukrainian specialists and one increasingly assimilated American, has evolved beyond its original mission into something the military doesn't quite have terminology for. They operate in gaps between established structures.

They call themselves the Berkut Brigade with dark humor, fully aware they're not actually a special operations brigade. There are eight individuals who discovered that survival depends more on the person beside you than the weapon in your hand. They've built something in the wreckage of their previous lives, glued together through shared purpose and trust that only emerges from repeated exposure to death.

Major Dmytro Kovalenko leads them with the tactical wisdom of someone who survived Donbas. The others bring specialized skills transformed by necessity into weapons capabilities. Maksym builds attack systems from hardware store components. Serhiy maintains production lines in basement workshops. Andriy cracks Russian jamming in real time. Levena flies missions with mechanical precision. Bondarenko delivers and conducts extracts when the roads become death traps, never leaving anyone behind after surviving Mariupol. Marchenko coordinates mechanized operations while obsessing over keeping his people alive. Young Taras represents a generation raised knowing their country's existence depends on their willingness to fight.

The shell hunger created by months of congressional deadlock in Washington allows Russian artillery to fire at ratios of ten to one, methodically grinding forward across the Donbas while James's carefully developed drone warfare tactics become increasingly ineffective without the artillery support to exploit the intelligence his team provides.

In May, Russia opens a new front with an offensive into the Kharkiv region, and James coordinates defensive operations with Marchenko and Kovalenko.

The Kursk offensive into Russia in August brings both tactical success and strategic questioning. James coordinates drone support for the advancing forces, working closely with Ukrainian commanders.

In December, James coordinates a complex operation against North Korean positions that succeeds tactically but costs Ukrainian lives, including Bondarenko, the helicopter pilot James has worked with since early 2023.