These Ukrainian Drones Don’t Just Kill. They Deliver Oatmeal Cookies.

The orders started coming in at around 7:30 on a Thursday morning — ordinary shopping lists under extraordinary conditions.

Smoked bacon. Oatmeal cookies. Mayonnaise. Mashed potatoes.

Copy that, radioed the commander.

The customers were Ukrainian soldiers in frontline bunkers and trenches, requesting airdrops of provisions by drone. Ukraine has mastered such deliveries out of dire necessity, giving new meaning to drones in a war where they are synonymous with death and destruction.

“We try to make it a bit nicer for them, to lift their spirits, so they don’t feel too down out there,” said a soldier with the call sign Lesyk, who packs parcels for drone drops in the eastern Dnipro region.

“Even small things matter,” he added.

With attack drones now dominating the battlefield, frontline movements carry exceptional risk. That has made it harder to send supplies to frontline soldiers, a challenge that Ukraine has increasingly tried to meet with unmanned aircraft. Soldiers describe catching deliveries of water, power banks and other essentials dropped by drones under the cover of night.

Much of the work is done by heavy Ukrainian-made Vampire drones, which can easily switch from killing enemy soldiers to delivering creature comforts. They can fly in harsh weather, and the Ukrainian military says they are harder than other drones to shoot down.

The Russians call the drones Baba Yaga, after the child-eating witch in Slavic folklore who hunts at night. When they are dropping treats, some Ukrainian soldiers call them “mama drones.”