Desperate to Defeat Russian Missiles, Ukrainians Tracked Down Old Soviet Engineers at Their Factories

The old-timers taught the Night Watch team how to jam cruise missiles

Night Watch, the Ukrainian electronic warfare team that, in 2023, recruited a Chinese spy to steal critical technology associated with Russia’s Shahed explosive drones, began as a disorganized gaggle of volunteers in the chaotic early hours of Russia’s wider invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

It quickly gelled as a team—and began searching Ukraine’s old Soviet-era weapons factories for old-timers with the know-how to defeat Russia’s missiles and drones. This combination—eager young volunteers and crusty old veterans—is the human resources recipe for Night Watch’s best missile and drone jammers.

“The war for me and my team began in February 2022,” Night Watch’s leader, who goes by the nom de guerre “Alchemist,” told Trench Art. “Ordinary civilians, we joined the Territorial Defense [Forces] to protect the homeland. Having no military education, we took on soldiering duties.”

But their real expertise was organizational. “Each of us brought significant experience from civilian work or business, which proved advantageous,” Alchemist said. “As territorial defense fighters, we were less familiar with obtaining weapons or filing requisitions—but we excelled at sourcing or even manufacturing them using volunteer funds or personal resources.”

Night Watch’s original 10 members quickly identified a problem they could solve. “From the war’s outset, the enemy widely deployed cruise missiles against Ukraine. We saw these as the primary threat to our logistics [and] cities in the war’s early months. That is when we began searching for countermeasures.” (See video of cruise missile impacts, above.)