As part of Rinat Akhmetov's Steel Front military initiative, the marketing director of Shakhtar FC, which has been defending Ukraine since the first days of the full-scale war, received a batch of equipment - Valkyria unmanned aerial vehicle and M-777 howitzer models - from Metinvest.
Before the start of the full-scale war, Oleksandr Mamalyga worked as the Marketing Director of the Shakhtar football club. Now he is also the commander of the air reconnaissance crew of one of the artillery brigades of the Ground Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He is fighting on the eastern front.
The main task of Oleksandr and his brothers-in-arms is to find the enemy and help to destroy it. In their division, fighters use various types of drones, from the simplest "maviks" to UCAVs. And they are always very much needed. That's why Metinvest, as part of the Rinat Akhmetov's Steel Front military initiative, which constantly helps the Armed Forces of Ukraine, handed over the equipment to Oleksandr Mamalyga's division. These are nine Valkyrie reconnaissance aircrafts with a total cost of UAH 2.7 million. They are highly appreciated on the front lines for their height and flight range.
Valkyrie is the most effective type of aircraft in terms of price-quality ratio, and it is used in the most challenging conditions. When the enemy's COMJAMs working, we use the Valkyries, because they can fly up to 45 kilometers, and after we "tune" them - even further. It is thanks to the Valkyries that we find very interesting targets, which we then share to attack by other means - these can be command posts, places with enemy personnel," says Oleksandr MAMALYGA.
In addition to Valkyries, Oleksandr's division received two models of equipment - this is a well-known development of Metinvest, designed to mislead the enemy. Now soldiers will be able to test them.
ACTUAL
The Armed Forces Brigade of the Shakhtar top manager received nine unmanned aerial vehicles Valkyries and two M-777 howitzer models from Metinvest
"We have M-777s in operational service, and they are of great interest to the enemy, because we fight quite efficiently. The enemy uses "Lancets" to find our firing units. This means that high-quality models directly affect the combat effectiveness of our division and the entire operation in general. The higher the quality of the models, the harder it is for the enemy to distinguish them from the real weapon. There are already precedents when models made by Metinvest were destroyed by the enemy. It turns out that they lost their destruction means, and our troops did not suffer any losses," Oleksandr MAMALYGA said.
Finally, Oleksandr adds: his personal goal is to return to free Donetsk, the home of Shakhtar FC, as soon as possible:
"Donbas Arena" will not recover by itself." We want people to be able to return both to Donbas Arena and to Donetsk, and to continue their normal life there, which was before the war."
As you know, since the start of the full-scale war, Metinvest has allocated UAH 4.2 billion to support the Armed Forces and Ukrainians. Of this amount, more than UAH 2 billion has been spent on helping soldiers as part of the Steel Front defence initiative. During this time, the company produced and delivered to the soldiers armored shields for 200 vehicles operating on the front lines, almost 280 steel dugouts, and also purchased for the military almost 500 cars, more than 1,500 drones, almost 2,000 thermal imagers and 875 pieces of communication equipment.
