by ADAM RAWNSLEY

With few willing to venture into Ukraine’s skies, and a pressing need for airborne intelligence, Moscow and Kiev are throwing their drone fleets into the fight.

To be sure, both sides are using unarmed reconnaissance drones. It’s all about helping their troops stay up-to-speed on their foe’s movements and positions. And in particular—spotting where the enemy is so the other side can shell them with artillery.

But the Russian-backed separatists have the advantage. Moscow has supplied sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicles to the rebels.

By contrast, Ukraine’s military never had much of a UAV fleet, so it’s had to improvise by resurrecting old hardware, improvising new homemade drones and buying whatever it can from friends and the commercial market.

Ukraine’s turn toward unmanned aviation for its intelligence needs is understandable. So far, Kiev is down to almost half the planes and helicopters it had before the war, from 400 to 222.

The vast majority of these losses are due to non-combat causes, such as theft by Russian-backed rebels and accidents. But Ukraine has lost 21 planes and choppers due to rebel anti-aircraft fire, and one jet lost to a Russian MiG-29 fighter.

In June, Ukraine’s military announced it was refurbishing older aircraft in its inventory. Later that summer—and again early this month—Russian-backed rebels released footage showing the downed carcasses of two unarmed Soviet-era Tu-143 drones.

At right—footage of a crashed Ukrainian Tu-143, via YouTube

The 1970s vintage, turbojet-powered drones use a rocket-assisted takeoff, and land by deploying a parachute and drifting to the ground. They’re a cousin of Ukraine’s Tu-141, a similar UAV that Ukraine has pledged to bring back into use.

The unarmed Tu-143s—a welcome revival though they may be—aren’t nearly enough to fill Ukraine’s surveillance needs. Instead, Kiev’s military has looked to build and buy smaller, tactical UAVs that soldiers on the front lines can carry into battle.