Anti-Drone Nets
Recently it's been widely reported that nets are being used as a low-tech but highly effective defence against drones. But there are many kinds of nets, and they are used differently.
These days, military and humanitarian vehicles in Donetsk oblast go nowhere without one of these:
This is me holding a drone detector in Sloviansk a couple of weeks ago, and the beeping means there’s a drone or drones around. They could be Russian or Ukrainian. But the good news is that they’re not very close, as there’s nothing shown on the screen.
The road shown above is uncovered, as it’s inside Sloviansk city. But the main roads outside built-up areas, and as many roads as possible nearer to the front lines, are now covered with nets – including fishing nets donated from European nations like Ireland, France and Sweden. A recent article from The Guardian shows old fishing nets from France covering a road in Kostiantynivka, near the front line.
Most netted roads are, however, a little more orderly than that. The below video, supplied by Operation Change, shows the village of Andriivka. There’s a clear difference between the makeshift and purpose-made nets.
Most of the city of Kherson is on the right bank of the Dnipro river, while the left bank is occupied: the Russians have been conducting FPV drone ‘human safari’ in the city for a while, and during the summer their range increased to threaten the main road north to Mykolaiv. Meanwhile, the highways from Kramatorsk to Pavlohrad, and Sloviansk to Izium, the two major roads into Donetsk oblast, have been partially covered with nets in the course of autumn.
The nets on the main road are sourced within Ukraine and erected by local authorities. But the demand for donated fishing nets to cover roads near the front lines, and any kind of building, vehicle or other military or infrastructure target, in as many locations as possible, is huge. Fishing nets have also been used to make camouflage nets since the start of the war, though this usage has been overtaken by their anti-drone function. Military checkpoints have also been covered with netting, but it’s illegal to photograph them.
Swedish group Operation Change are one of the biggest suppliers of donated fishing nets. Co-founder Ludvig Ramestan told me how this came about when I visited Sloviansk with them (see previous post).
Ludvig: Operation Change delivered our first nets in 2022. At this point it was pretty low volumes – one or two cubic metres. These were collected and handed in to [volunteer organisations] Ukraine Will Win, or Dnipro Spiders, for example, for them to make camouflage nets. In early 2024 we got more and more and more requests for fishing nets so we ramped up collection.
We delivered sixteen cubic metres and were very proud of that! Then Ukraine Will Win asked us two days later if we had more. We understood, OK, this is not all for camouflage nets. And they told us the soldiers are using them as anti-drone protection.
So then we aimed higher and tried to start filling trucks with fishing nets. At that point we hadn’t heard of anyone doing that in Sweden so we reached out to some Danish friends and together we started an operation where along with some other partners we have delivered about 500 tons of nets from the Nordic countries.
The need for nets has changed as this has grown into a drone war. Half a year ago I heard statistics from several sources [for example, this article] that drones are now responsible for eighty per cent of the casualties on both sides.
Some argue that both sides have been a bit slow with this ‘invention’. I agree in the sense that it would have been good if they’d covered the roads, defence lines, critical infrastructure and vehicles to a larger extent earlier when they weren’t under the same amount of fire like now. However, it’s all moving very fast and hard prioritisatons are done every day already so I would say that this is understandable.
For the last ten months we have been getting requests from all directions for all types of nets. The nets have different capabilities and properties and they are suitable for different applications. The lighter ones where you get 5,000-6,000 square metres per cubic metre are regularly used around roads and in the woods to catch and protect. The thicker, stronger ones, from our side, mostly big trawling nets, are being used on positions and vehicles. At medical institutions, gas stations and checkpoints for example, there could be different combinations.”
A Russian drone buzzes helplessly, caught in a net near the front line.
Soldier: We’ve caught the little fish! It thought it would be fucking simple... Now we’ve got to wait until its battery dies…
Nets, whether purpose-made or repurposed, are not a panacea, particularly when used over roads. If there are buildings along the road, holes have to be cut in the nets to allow access. A glide bomb or other large explosive can rip a hole in a net that allows drones to enter; or a drone can find its way in to one end of a tunnel and then sit by the side of the road and wait for what the operator considers a desirable target (which could be anything depending on intent: a military vehicle, perhaps, or just a civilian car to generate maximum terror). The glare of headlights reflected off nets at night can also dazzle drivers.
Near the front lines, though, soldiers use nets in huge quantities, as their positions aren’t just subject to the occasional drone attack but a constant barrage of them. The video above shows just how effective nets can be, not just defending soldiers but destroying the drones themselves. Unfortunately soldiers can’t take nets with them to the forward positions, because they are too bulky to carry, but most things further back than the zero line can be protected in this way.
Nets are clearly saving lives, of both civilians and the military, in the east and south of Ukraine. If you yourself, or anyone you know in the UK or Europe, might be able to supply fishing nets, please contact me on firstname@firstnamelastname.co.uk and I will try to put you in touch with volunteers in your country.
Good use for the nets! On the side, the vertical ones are going to be a hazard for birds... but then war as such is a terrible hazard for *anything* alive, so it's best to protect who can be protected as best they can be.
Thanks for sharing Anna - good to see these nets getting a second life instead of ending up in landfill (or in the ocean). Slava Ukraini.