ZAPORIZHZHIA– In a garage on the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia, Yuri, a 47-year old farmer from the frontline town of Orikhiv, runs one of the most unique garages in Ukraine. While he may work on cars, he isn’t aiming to fix them – but to convert them into hybrid weapons of war.
Yuri and his small team are currently working on their latest creation: a Ford F-250 pickup-turned-war machine. Having removing the pickup’s bed, they are in the process of welding on its replacement, a rack that holds three BM-21 GRAD rocket artillery tubes. A pair of stabilizer legs, one on each side of the truck’s rear, deploy to ensure accuracy, which Yuri says is much better on his vehicle than on a standard GRAD system.
“I can’t take too much credit for all this – it was my son Maksym’s idea,” Yuri tells Paradox. “He’s just 17, but he had the thought to use these rockets in this way. I just carried it out.”
Following the full-scale Russian invasion, Yuri wracked his brain, trying to think of how he could best assist Ukraine’s Armed Forces. He didn’t just want to sign up for the draft: he had no relevant experience, and a family to think about anyways. He was, however, an experienced machinist, having driven rally cars in local races as an enthusiast for many years.
As the war intensified last summer, Yuri had the answer come to him. In July, he was chatting idly with a friend in the Ukrainian army about creating the sort of rocket launcher his son had envisioned, when that friend asked if it was a possibility. Yuri agreed, as long as they could be provided with the GRAD tubes. By August 2nd, they received them, and the first system was operational by the end of the month.
They have now built 12 of the makeshift rocket artillery trucks, with more to come.
“The only thing better than their accuracy is their price,” Yuri says. “It costs us between $6,000 and $8,000 to build one of the small [three-tube] trucks, depending on the model of the base vehicle we use, and only $300 more to build a big [six-tube] one. I’m joking with some of my friends in the [Ukrainian] defense industry that we’re going to put them out of business,” he smiles.
The trucks themselves are highly reminiscent of the sort of ingenuity that rebels fighting government forces in Syria were forced to develop in the early 2010s. The most iconic of these, the ‘Hell Cannon,’ was itself a sort of improvised mortar piece, using various artillery parts cobbled together to lob explosives onto enemy positions. Syrian government forces, themselves the heirs of a massive Cold War-era military stockpile, created their own variants, including the ‘Volcano’ improvised rocket-assisted munitions, essentially a form of heavy rocket artillery.
The men on Yuri’s team appreciate the value of these weapons better than most. Almost all of them hail from territory now under Russian occupation, in either Zaporizhzhie oblast or Donetsk oblast further east.
“Of course, most of my family is still there – my mother, father, everyone except my wife and children,” says Vlad, a native of Mariupol, who does not give his last name to avoid endangering his relatives. “I came here in March [2022] – I barely got out in time. I am glad that I found something to help work towards my hometown’s liberation,” he says.
Yuri and his crew are not the only ones putting their machinist skills to work in Ukraine’s DIY defense. Across town, another rally driver is doing his part, too.
Eduard, a Zaporizhzhia native, has been a colleague of Yuri’s for years. He, too, wanted to think of an innovative method to aid Ukraine’s Armed Forces, and so he turned to his rally cars.
“I’ve been working on cars for 30 years, and I can repair anything from 1990 or older,” Eduard says, standing in front of his current project. “No one in the regions [of Ukraine] has the sort of experience or capabilities I do, especially to build these [vehicles] cheaply and quickly.”
Once the war began, Eduard learned from his friends in the armed forces that they were in dire need of medical evacuation vehicles. He realized that with a little effort, he could easily up-armor his rally buggies for this purpose. Within a few months, he had taken all five existing buggies from his garage, installed additional metal plating to add some protection from small arms or shrapnel, and given them to the army. In the months since, he has overhauled and sent out another 19 cars into evacuation vehicles, all donated by various friends and family.
Considering where they have been since, the lifespan on the vehicles has been impressive.
“My friend took this car to Bakhmut,” Eduard says, gesturing at the jeep currently undergoing repairs in the garage. “It lasted six months before the engine gave out. Now we’re replacing it with an old Zhiguli engine. Each of these [trucks] can evacuate eight people at a time – they’re very useful.”
The user reviews on Eduard and Yuri’s vehicles are, indeed, very positive. Back at Yuri’s garage, as he shows off his latest six-tube GRAD truck, a call comes in on his walkie-talkie. The caller is one of his beneficiaries: a soldier using one of his rocket trucks, calling from the frontlines just 30 kilometers away.
“We just fired it off,” says the soldier, who’s using one of the three-tube rocket trucks. “It was great – hardly shook at all, accuracy was perfect. We nailed a trench of [Russian] infantry. Thanks, Yuri!” he exclaims.
Yuri laughs and signs off the call.
“These are my favorite moments,” he says. “When we can hear directly how we’re helping. This is what gives us the most motivation.”
