The sound of drones follows Ukrainian soldiers at every step

According to Ukrainian psychiatrists, thousands of soldiers are now returning from the front lines suffering from acute stress disorders linked to drone noise. “Dronophobia” can be triggered by a variety of common city noises – small engines and scooters, lawnmowers, air conditioners – anything mechanical that makes a sharp noise. Noise-related trauma is nothing new – generations of soldiers have been affected by it after returning to civilian life. But as the war in Ukraine has transformed into a conflict driven by drone technology, the trauma has taken on new forms.

In a cramped apartment in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, Pavlo, a 30-year-old drone operator recently returned from the front lines, opened his black pizza box-shaped bag. Inside was a four-propeller drone he intended to fly around the room.

He pressed a few buttons on the control unit and moved the antenna to different positions. Nothing happened. “Sorry, not today,” he told the BBC team. The unit seemed fine, but something was broken.
On the front line, Pavlo — who asked to be identified only by his first name — was a pilot of FPV (first-person view) drones. These small, highly maneuverable drones have cameras on the front that allow you to fly them at a distance. 

Over the past year, explosive-laden FPVs have become commonplace on the front lines in Ukraine, replacing the heavy weapons that characterized the first phase of the war.
FPVs chase armored vehicles, track infantry units through forests, and chase individual soldiers to death. “You can’t hide from FPV, and running away is pointless,” Pavlo stressed. “You try to be as calm as possible, and you pray.”

Even when an FPV is too high to be seen clearly, or hidden behind foliage, soldiers can hear its characteristic, sharp noise.

"Bzzzzzzzzzz. You're being followed," he added.

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After more than a year on the front lines, Pavlo has returned home to the apartment he shares with his wife. But the sound of drones has followed him there too.

Even nature offers no salvation.

Everyday mechanical devices like lawnmowers, engines, and air conditioners remind him of the FPVs that had followed him and his unit mates.

Nature offers no escape either. Pavlo can no longer hear the buzz of bees or flies buzzing around him without feeling inner anxiety. “I don't like going out in nature anymore and hearing this noise, because it reminds me of drones,” he said.

Noise-related trauma is nothing new – generations of soldiers have been affected by unexpected noises upon their return to civilian life. But as the war in Ukraine has transformed into a conflict driven by drone technology, the trauma has taken on new forms.

"Over the past year, most patients - if not physically injured - have suffered from mental health consequences as a result of exposure to drone activity," said Serhii Andriichenko, a psychiatrist at the Kiev military hospital.

"We call this dronaphobia."

Thousands of men are now returning from the front lines like Pavlo, suffering from acute stress disorders linked to drone noises, Andriichenko said. “Dronophobia” can be triggered by a range of common city noises – small motorbikes and scooters, lawnmowers, air conditioners – anything mechanical that causes a sharp noise.

"If it's a small motorcycle or a lawnmower, my first thought is that it could be a drone," said Savur, another soldier returned from the front, who lost his arm as a result of a drone attack.

On the front lines, drones had become a "permanent noise," added Savur, who, in accordance with military protocol, asked to be identified by his nickname. 

"The sound of a shell only lasts a few seconds, but the sound of a drone is there most of the time," he said. "You can lie in your position, in your shelter, and listen to it for hours. I always remember that noise."

Or sometimes the problem is the opposite – silence. 

"Silence is always the beginning," Andriichenko said. "When soldiers go on rotation to combat positions, they start listening carefully to make sure there are no drones. There is constant tension, constant fear. They are always looking up."

In many cases, the lingering sense of tension has not disappeared even after returning to civilian life. Soldiers have been seen suddenly turning off the lights in their homes, moving away from windows and hiding under furniture.

Later, when a soldier presents for treatment, he often does not remember any noise that caused the reaction, but his wife or a family member discovers that the extractor fan or air conditioner was on at that moment.

Soldiers from the early stages of the war – which was characterized more by fierce, direct fighting – returned home fearful of the forests, where most of the fighting took place. But drone warfare has reversed that trend. 

The increased use of drones has had another chilling effect on troops – it has expanded the danger zone far beyond the front lines. Soldiers operating up to 40 kilometers away, or who have withdrawn after rotation, can no longer lower their vigilance.

Nazar Bokhii, commander of a small drone unit, was in open shelter about 5 kilometers from the line of contact when his unit successfully struck a Russian mortar position 22 kilometers away. 

Excited by the attack, Bokhii had rushed out of the shelter, forgetting the basic rule: to stop and listen for the usual noise of a drone.

Just a few meters away, a Russian drone hovered in midair. As it approached rapidly, Bokhii only had time to raise his hands. After the drone exploded, it took both of his hands, his left eye, and caused severe burns to his face.

Bokhii himself has said that his post-traumatic stress is limited – some fear response to motorbikes or lawnmowers. But he knew the impact of sound well, because his unit had used it to instill terror in others.

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"We were the party that caused fear through sound, not the one that would suffer from it," he said.

At some point they realized that noise could be used to force Russian soldiers out of shelters.

"The drone noise itself is a serious psychological attack"

"You circle it and it immediately becomes a test of the enemy's psychological resilience," Bokhii explained. "The very sound of the drone is a serious psychological attack."

According to him, if you make a noise about a soldier for a long time, he will come out of cover and run towards the open ground. “Our psychology works in such a way that we feel the need to do something to calm ourselves down,” Bokhii said. “So you hover nearby and psychologically suppress him ... as he starts running, it becomes easier to hit him.”

Meanwhile, the psychological terror of drones is no longer just a frontline problem. It has spread beyond war zones. Russia has begun using drones to drop explosives on civilians in cities near the frontline in Ukraine.

Among the hardest hit is Kherson, a city in the south of the country that was once occupied by Russian forces and is still within range of drones. 

According to the international organization Human Rights Watch, Russian forces have deliberately targeted civilians in the city with FPV drones, killing or maiming them - an act that constitutes a war crime.

According to the regional military administration, at least 84 civilians have been killed in the Kherson region as a result of Russian drone attacks this year.

Residents have said that small FPV drones are a daily terror.

"There are no safe places anymore," said 23-year-old Dmytro Olifirenko, a border guard who lives in the city of Kherson. 

"You have to always be alert, focused, and therefore the body is constantly under stress," he added.

Olifirenko was waiting at a bus stop in September when he heard the familiar sound of Russian drones flying overhead. “We thought they were going to follow the bus, because they had followed civilian buses before,” he thought at the time.

But instead, the drone simply dropped the explosives on the bus stop, scattering shrapnel on Olifirenko's head, face, and leg. 

The video of this event, filmed by a bystander, recorded the sound of the drone accompanied by Olifirenko's screams as blood flowed onto the sidewalk.

Now, Olifirenko continues to hear the drones, as if they were there – even when they aren't.

"It takes a toll on your mental and psychological health," he added. "Even when you leave for Mykolaiv or another city, you're constantly hearing it."

For civilians like Olifirenko, drones have transformed the usual noises of urban areas – cars, engines, generators, lawnmowers, air conditioners – into a daily psychological trap that must be endured, in addition to the very real danger these drones pose.

For soldiers returning from the front, like Pavlo, drones have created a new, more specific kind of fear – one that doesn't go away easily.

"You see the world as a battlefield. And it could turn into a battlefield at any second," he said.

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According to Pavlos, of all the triggers that leave long-term consequences, hearing – the sense most affected by drones – was the most at risk. 

"When you see something, the brain can analyze it immediately, understand very quickly what it is. But an unknown voice is different. Your brain changes. You can't ignore it, you have to react. Because on the front lines, it can save your life," he emphasized.