Edited at 17:10 to reflect the news outlet’s correct name: Frontliner. IMI apologises to our colleagues and readers
Reporters with the news outlet Frontliner were able to avoid danger while on a reporting trip to Kharkiv oblast by using a drone detector to intercept the feed transmitted by the drone, war correspondent Danylo Dubchak told Institute of Mass Information journalist Valentyna Troyan.
Dubchak said that he and his crew had gone on a reporting trip two weeks earlier and acquaintances had advised them not to go near the frontline without a drone detector.
“We turned [the detector] on wherever there was any threat. Obviously, the devices do not catch everything, they don’t cover some frequencies. They do not cover fiber optics, but we turned the detector on on our way from Kharkiv to Izium, just in case. Driving feels safer this way,” Danylo Dubchak said.
On the way from Izium, Dubchak’s colleague was monitoring the drone detector. He was about to ask her to turn it off, as the area seemed safe. However, at that moment the detector picked up a drone signal and the feed from the drone’s camera appeared on the screen.
“We caught a reconnaissance drone, it seems; either a Gerbera or a Shahed. And [the detector] started showing the feed. The feeling of seeing the picture on the detector is not the most pleasant, to be honest,” said the war reporter.
The journalist recalled another time a drone detector did its job in Kharkiv oblast. Dubchak did not name the exact location, but he said it had happened near the front line.
“A colleague went out on the ground with the radio operators. I gave her a detector and they caught a Shahed, which, the press officer said, was flying past some building,” said Danylo Dubchak.
The journalist stressed that being equipped with a device like this gave him a feeling of relief and helped calm down by warning of potential danger.
Yet, he added that detectors come in varying quality: some do not work correctly in the electronic warfare (EW) range and may go off constantly.
On 17 March 2026, a Suspilne Dnipro filming crew was able to escape a Russian FPV drone following them thanks to being equipped with a drone detector.
According to the Institute of Mass Information, Russia committed 901 crimes against journalists and the media in Ukraine in the four years and one month since the start of the full-scale war.
As IMI has pointed out, while artillery posed the biggest threat to journalists in 2022, in 2025–2026 UAVs (FPV drones, Lancet and Molniya type drones, etc.) have become the dominant risk factor. IMI recorded the deaths of three media professionals while reporting in the fourth year of the full-scale invasion, all of which were drone strikes.
IMI has also written that wearing visible “Press” / PRESS markings in areas of active FPV warfare does not grant journalists immunity: on the contrary, the Russian troops see it is a target.