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Dnipropetrovsk Oblast: News

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The net gun built for civilians in Ukraine’s kill zone

At a training with the Ukrainian National Guard’s Omega unit, engineers from the defense tech company BlueBird Tech describe how to use their net gun, named Chipa, to entangle an approaching drone’s propellers. The soldiers rehearse encounters with approaching first-person-view (FPV) drones, monitoring a handheld detector as they walk. Once they spot a drone, one soldier who goes by the callsign Poliak (Ukrainian for "Pole"), pulls the safety pin and takes aim with the net gun, while the others

A Ukrainian National Guard soldier holds an FPV drone caught in a net in an unnamed location, Ukraine, on Oct. 20, 2026.

About Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

The Kyiv Independent's news and on-the-ground reporting from Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, which covers 31,974 square kilometers (12,348 square miles) in central-eastern Ukraine. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast's population is approximately 3.2 million, and its administrative center is Dnipro, Ukraine's fourth-largest city and major economic hub. Ukrainian forces use the region as a logistics base for operations in the eastern and southern fronts.

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