UAV Takes the Fight to Russia
https://www.uavets.org/uav-takes-the-fight-to-russia
How it started
Back in 2022, Leda Lada, NUE’s Business Development Consultant for Ukraine, who is originally from Philadelphia, reached out to an old family friend, Jerry Kindrachuk, and proposed a way to help Ukrainian warfighters defeat the Russians. Jerry is the Post Commander for Ukrainian American Veterans (UAV) Post 42 in Lehigh Valley, near Allentown, PA.
New Use Energy (NUE), is a Phoenix-based company that designs and manufactures professional-grade portable battery generators. Prior to the Russian war, NUE generators were designed for use after disasters. After the Russian invasion started on February 24, 2022 , NUE’s NGO clients contacted them the next morning to help Ukraine.
UAV Post 31 member Paul Shmotolokha, CEO of NUE, is a former US Army Captain whose last assignment was running a B Team in a Special Operations Company focused on Counter Insurgency in Latin America. “I knew the Russians were going to hit the grid since that is what anyone would do to sow fear and chaos behind front lines,” Paul recalled. “So we started helping hospitals prepare for the worst.”
Paul explained what happened next saying, “What we didn’t know was how the drone war would evolve. We received our first photo [of a drone] from a combat team working with Mavic drones in May of 2022 and had no idea what that was, or what a drone team was, and we had no idea how fast all the technology would evolve.”
An Evolving Mission
Leda Lada, a biomedical engineer with extensive service assisting the Ukrainian National Health Service during the Covid pandemic and in legalizing life-saving blood transfusion at the frontline, knew that the NUE’s generator technology was needed not just in hospitals but in combat medicine and at the frontlines in general.
Once civilian medical area’s critical needs were covered via several NGO’s in the USA and Canada, she turned to UAV Post 42 to start addressing the needs at the nearby frontlines.
For example, after the Russians targeted and breached the Nova Kakhovka dam and caused severe flooding in Kherson, she asked local authorities how NUE could support the defense of the highly-exposed city. “Once I started speaking to my contacts working with military units,” Lada said, “we learned about the need to power Starlinks that were carrying all this battlefield video as well as forming the backbone of communications for many units.” She explained, “Starlinks need up to 100 Watts of power, and it just didn’t make sense to anyone to run a big generator which would also give up their position via thermal and acoustic detection.”
From there the mission evolved to what it is today, which is a ubiquitous need for stealthy power across the frontlines to run the drone ecosystem, counter-drone systems, medical devices, and communications. NUE published its first artillery targeting mission on YouTube. Lada said, “Everyone realized that over here in the West, we could legally help the fight in a direct way. You can’t buy ammunition, but you can get the troops the best portable power available to enable intel to repel the invaders.”
Together with the generous donors from UAV Posts 31 and 42, NUE saved tens of thousands of Ukrainian lives by destroying the enemy and by keeping medical units and hospitals up and running 24/7.
UAV Post 32
UAV Post 42’s Commander is Jerry Kindrachuk. He has run some high-visibility fundraisers, including an art auction of the paintings of the late Jurij Hura, which was covered on local TV news. Jerry told us, “The response from regular Americans, the Ukrainian diaspora, and UAV members has been amazing. We hope to expand it to all the UAV posts as this is the biggest impact that an organization like the Ukrainian American Veterans can do to affect matters on the battlefield.”
Each UAV-donated unit goes out with a metal plaque adhered to the unit stating if it was gifted by Post 31 or Post 42.
NUE CEO Paul Shmotolokha says, “This is something we do especially to support morale. The Ukrainian soldiers love it! They are amazed to know that Ukrainian American veterans support them. It really gives them a boost.”
Why Soldiers Choose Silence Over Horsepower
The appeal of NUE’s SunCase systems to Ukrainian military units has little to do with cost and everything to do with survival. Fossil-fuel generators are loud, they need resupply convoys that are themselves prime targets, and they run hot — a problem in a war increasingly fought by cheap surveillance drones hunting for exactly that kind of thermal bloom. “Part of the reason why we’re relevant and growing there is that our equipment makes no noise,” Shmotolokha said of the units’ appeal in theater, adding that they also don’t require gasoline resupply. Standard solar panels bring their own risk — glass collectors shatter under shrapnel, and their heat signature can draw drone attention, so NUE’s Ukraine-deployed kits favor lightweight, low-profile collectors that can be carried under one arm and broken down quickly. NUE is now also interoperating with methanol fuel cells that recharge the batteries silently.
The SunCase is a line of professional-grade, rugged, solar-first portable power stations (solar generators) designed and manufactured in the United States by New Use Energy Solutions, Inc. (NUE). Launched in April 2023, the system was developed as a clean, noiseless alternative to traditional fuel-powered tactical generators. It is heavily used in mission-critical sectors including military field operations, disaster relief, emergency management, telecommunications, and professional film/TV production.
NUE’s country manager in Ukraine, Oleksii Zemlynskyi, based in Lviv, Ukraine, personally trains local technicians to install and maintain the systems. It’s work he does in body armor and a helmet when he travels to install units near the frontline. That training effort has a second purpose beyond speed: it employs Ukrainians directly in sustaining the country’s own emergency power network.
Earlier this summer, NUE pushed the concept further, unveiling SunStealth, which it describes as the first infrared-defeating cover system built for tactical battery generators. “Every active power battery unit in the field is broadcasting its location,” Shmotolokha said of the thermal problem the product is designed to solve, framing Ukraine’s front lines as the proving ground for a technology the company now plans to bring to NATO militaries. He proudly added, “These are global leading technologies developed by a Ukrainian company and provides jobs for Ukrainians. No one knows the IR threats better than they do. They started with sniper covers and we jointly developed this for our products. It is a global first.”
Powering Medics, Drone Teams, and Comms Under Blackout Conditions
The practical uses on Ukraine’s front line fall into recurring categories. Frontline medical stabilization points and field hospitals run lighting, refrigeration of blood and critical medicines, communications gear and medical equipment.
Unlike traditional diesel or gasoline units, these rugged lithium-iron-phosphate (LiFePO4) battery systems produce pure sine wave AC power and generate no exhaust fumes. This unique combination allows them to operate directly inside an active operating room or triage space without the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning or damaging sensitive medical electronics.
Signals and reconnaissance teams recharge radios and the batteries powering counter-drone and drone-operation equipment — a use NUE has photographed and shared publicly, captioned simply as Ukrainian troops “powering up anti-drone equipment.” Other units use the systems during position changes, where running a generator, or even lighting a fire for warmth, risks giving away a location to Russian surveillance drones.
For operational security reasons, NUE, UAV Post 31, and UAV Post 42 do not publish which specific Ukrainian brigades receive any given shipment of equipment — a standard practice across most donated-equipment programs supporting Ukraine’s military.
What is documented is the pattern of use: units operating under blackout discipline, medical units that cannot risk losing power mid-procedure, mobile air-defense teams operating in remote sectors without grid power, and drone and counter-drone teams that depend on continuous, quiet recharging far from any fixed grid connection.
70 Generators Delivered to Ukraine So Far
Together, the Ukrainian American Veterans and New Use Energy have delivered more than 70 generators to Ukraine — all to frontline units — but the needs are so much larger. We have made an impact, and we hope to expand the project to more UAV Posts nationally to help Ukraine during what will be a very, very tough winter.
