In Ukraine, a 12-year-old child shot down a drone while saving his siblings

The boy is the eldest child in the family. on 18 April, he tore a fibre optic cable on his own and thus saved his siblings from a Russian drone, Suspilne reported.

The boy says that he was on the street when he saw the drone flying to where the children were playing.

He just flies, I saw that he begins to turn. Just sat down, I look, it's up. I said, "That's it, 15 seconds and I'm out of here." My nephew comes out and shouts: "rip it!" I rip and I see that he started to gain altitude, because he loses control and starts to fall. We were already prepared that it's about to explode. But the drone fell 100-150 metres away from us into the bushes," Anatoly said.

The teenager was taught how to properly tear the fibre optic cable by military acquaintances.

We just went to their place in the forest to saw firewood. We were friends. We sawed wood, and when we cut down the last tree, it had this fibre on it. He showed me and said: "In a rare case, tear it." And then instinct kicked in, because we had three of our own and three more were not mine (brothers and sisters, - ed.), - said the teenager.

According to Anatoly, he did it for the first time and was scared, but the fear for his relatives was stronger. Now he feels almost no fear.

I am almost not afraid of anything. Yes, there is still the fear of the "shaheddah". But after living in Semenovka, when it was flying overhead, it is no longer scary," Anatoly said.

The boy's father, Vladimir Poltoratsky, says he did not immediately realise what had happened:

'Scared everyone: both my mother and father. Psychologically he withstood it, well done. So, a man is growing up.

Nikita Gavrilenko, operations director of the Kruk UAV operator training centre, says: the boy was lucky that there was no other drone nearby.

Usually an FPV drone does not fly alone. It is led by another drone from the air. Certainly, some "mavic" is hovering at a height of 300 metres and gives target designation: the target is there or the target has moved. And if this drone from a height of 300 metres sees a boy who has decided that he is good at everything, and starts to disarm these drones - to cut and tangle the optical fibre. What happens next? Next, this boy will become a priority target because he's in the way," the military man said.

Now Anatoly is studying in the 7th grade. His father says that because of the security situation, the family moved to Chernihiv and plans to apply for IDP status. There are five children in the family, and Anatoly is the eldest son.

He is the most reliable support. Even here we used to leave him and go to the hospital. He stays with all the younger ones," the father told reporters.

The boy says he wants the war to end. His main hobby now is mechanics. He likes to spend time with his father and help him fix the car.

Helping my father with the tractor, with the car. We had a tractor and there was a problem with the running gear. We took it all apart, I remembered. Then it came to the car, - said Anatoly.

The schoolboy shares: after this incident, he wants to become a military man and work with drones.

I wonder what they have inside. What they are made of and how to disarm them," the hero of the publication ponders.