Meet the Peaky Blinders, Ukraine's drone unit protecting a devastated front-line city

What the report says

BBC World News reports from Slovyansk, a front-line city in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region that is part of what Ukrainian officials call the “fortress belt,” a set of heavily defended cities still under Kyiv’s control. The city has been hit repeatedly by Russian drones, missiles and glide bombs, and the reporting says it has become nearly uninhabitable, with fewer than 10% of residents left compared with before the war.

Against that backdrop, a Ukrainian drone unit calling itself the Peaky Blinders is helping defend the city by intercepting incoming Russian drones. The nickname comes from the BBC TV drama of the same name. The segment follows the unit’s role in a wider effort to protect civilian areas and military positions in a region that remains under intense pressure from Russian attacks.

The report also places Slovyansk in a broader diplomatic context. Russia has said it wants Ukraine to give up the fortress cities, and these locations are described as central to renewed talks on a possible peace deal involving Ukraine, Russia and the United States in Abu Dhabi after a nine-month pause. In general terms, the city’s situation illustrates both the battlefield significance of eastern Ukraine’s defensive lines and the continuing strain on local civilians.