How to help Ukraine: Come Back Alive and school for Interceptor drone Operators (Patreon)

Dear Kyiv Independent community members, 

Thank you for your continued support. We launched this newsletter for our members last year — because we heard from you that there's interest in getting more involved in helping Ukraine.

Each month, we send one edition of the "How to Help Ukraine" newsletter, highlighting an organization supporting Ukraine and giving you a closer look at civil society — along with opportunities to donate or, in some cases, volunteer.

In the thirteenth edition of "How to Help Ukraine," we're proud to highlight the work of Come Back Alive, an independent Ukrainian organization that helps Ukraine’s Defense Forces acquire the equipment and technology they need, from charging stations and drone interceptors to vehicles and grenade launchers.

Come Back Alive has multiple projects underway, including nine training schools and centers within Ukraine’s Defense Forces. The schools' curricula and activities are designed to address the challenges of modern warfare and are constantly adapted to the situation on the front lines. 

In this edition, we would like to encourage you to support The Arkan School – a training center for drone-based air defense specialists. The school trains operators of multi-rotor and fixed-wing drone interceptors, as well as radar operators. Come Back Alive is helping equip the school’s training classrooms, drone training complexes, simulators, and ground stations for a safe and effective training process. You can make a contribution to The Arkan School here.

Come Back Alive was established in 2014. Back then, the organization's team consisted of just a few people who purchased and delivered body armor to the front lines. Each piece of armor had  "Повернись живим" (Come Back Alive) written on it. Eventually, this phrase became the Foundation’s name.

Over time, the needs of the Ukrainian military grew and changed. While in the early days the Foundation mainly supplied medications, radios, and thermal imagers, the range of aid later expanded significantly—from vehicles, mortars, and grenade launchers to evacuation vehicles, various types of drones, and ground-based robotic systems.

Over 12 years of the war, Come Back Alive has already provided Ukraine’s Defense Forces with equipment and technology worth over $1 billion. The funding for this has come from individuals, Ukrainian and international businesses, state-owned enterprises, and foreign donors. The Foundation's full financial reports are publicly available; you can find more details here.

Another key activity of Come Back Alive is the education and training of soldiers. Before the full-scale invasion began, the foundation's instructors regularly travelled to military units to conduct specialized training, starting with mine safety and sniping, and this has now been scaled to nine training schools and centers to prepare soldiers for modern warfare.

Since 2022, Russia has been actively investing at the state level in developing, producing, and scaling up strike and reconnaissance drones. In response to their widespread use, Ukraine has developed its own interceptor drones, as the most accessible and effective means of countering these attacks. 

However, interceptor drones can only be deployed effectively when operated by well-trained crews capable of detecting threats, making rapid decisions, and working seamlessly as a team.

Recognizing this need, Come Back Alive launched the Arkan training school for drone interceptor operators in the summer of 2025. The training programs, lasting between 20 and 40 days depending on the course, prepare up to 90 cadets each month. The curriculum is built around two essential competencies: target detection and target interception.

Come Back Alive has already invested over $300,000 to equip classrooms and instructor offices, as well as to purchase unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) training systems, simulators, ground control stations, and other equipment necessary for high-quality training. In just over a year of operation, the Arkan school has trained more than 800 people. Across various parts of the front lines, they are successfully detecting and destroying Russian reconnaissance and strike drones.

“When my group started training at the Arkan school, the instructors had just returned from the front line. They brought with them real combat experience and shared the lessons they had learned in battle. We spent a lot of time on practical field exercises, where the instructors launched simulated Russian forces drones for us to intercept with our own interceptor UAVs. We repeated the same maneuvers over and over until they became second nature—and it paid off.

During our first combat mission, my crew shot down a Russian strike drone. It felt just like training, except the target was real. The next day, we intercepted six more Russian UAVs. To date, I've shot down 17 targets," says Jean, a graduate of the Arkan school for interceptor drone operators.

Come Back Alive continues to invest systematically in the school's development. Funds raised through this email are used to expand the school's training infrastructure, enabling it to train more qualified interceptor drone operators. Increasing both the number and the proficiency of these crews is essential to strengthening Ukraine's ability to counter Russian drone attacks.

You can support Come Back Alive's efforts to expand the Arkan school's training infrastructure and help train more interceptor drone operators. If you'd like to make a contribution, you can find the details on their website.

Thank you for your support — and we hope you find these letters highlighting organizations like Come Back Alive useful. If you have any questions or feedback about our newsletter, please feel free to respond directly to this email or reach out via email at community@kyivindependent.com.