Displaced Ukrainians make remote-controlled stretchers in family workshop
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KYIV
REGION, Ukraine, June 5 (Reuters) - Ukrainian teenager Yelisei Mamonov
dreams of attending his country's top technical university one day.
For
now, he is gaining valuable experience at a family-run workshop making
remote-controlled stretchers to rescue wounded troops as Russia's invasion grinds on and Kyiv seeks more innovative battlefield solutions.
Working
under his father Dmytro, 52, a former factory manager, and alongside
his 10-year-old sister Yesenia, the 14-year-old has already put dozens
of such devices into use.
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"We
need to scale it up. We want as many as possible to be at the front, so
that every unit, every company has one," Mamonov said, as a prototype
whizzed down a dirt track at a training ground outside the capital Kyiv.
The
Mamonovs fled the eastern city of Sloviansk shortly after Moscow's
February 2022 attack and set up production in central Ukraine, far from
the cluster munitions that once rained down on their street.
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During
a recent visit by Reuters to their workshop, they showed off two
models: a lightweight, foldable stretcher and a heavier-duty tracked
vehicle, called a TerMIT (Tracked Modular Infantry Transporter).
The
sound of sparks and clanging of metal filled the green- and
white-walled space, where electronic and mechanical components were
splayed about.
[1/7]Dmytro
Mamonov, his wife Oksana and daughter Yesenia stand in their workshop
where they produce remote-controlled medical evacuation vehicles for the
military, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at an undisclosed location
in central Ukraine, May 31, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter Purchase Licensing Rights
Yesenia,
who by now has learned to connect electrical parts, adjusted the wheels
on the smaller model, which costs about $1,900 to make. The TerMIT's
production cost is about $5,200.
Business
is booming, said wife and mother Oksana, 41, who was also pulled into
the project, called the Tank Bureau, to field orders for front-line
troops.
She brushes off criticism from family members and others that her kids are missing out on an ordinary childhood.
"I think that, on the contrary, when they grow up they'll be thankful because they'll have more skills than others."
Drones and myriad other hi-tech devices are playing an increasingly pivotal role in the war, and top Ukrainian officials have acknowledged the need to step up domestic production.
The
Mamonovs' effort has been funded by a Ukrainian defence tech
accelerator run by the government. But more may be needed to achieve
Dmytro's vision: a battlefield where robotics like his family's are as
widespread as first-aid kits.
"That
means mass production, that means we need a proper plan," he said. "But
in order to reach this, we need a radical leap forward."
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Writing by Dan Peleschuk, Editing by William Maclean
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
