Slava Balbek is the driving force of Ukrainian architecture. He is the founder of the Balbek Bureau Workshop and a visionary of many initiatives. During the full-scale war, his priority was to help the army as the head of the volunteer air reconnaissance unit "Barracuda." They position themselves as "Ukrainian volunteer airlines" and perform tasks in various directions.
Recently, Slava Balbek decided to mobilise, submitted documents and is waiting for the conclusion of a contract with the Armed Forces.
He told online.ua about what motivated him to join the army, how his wife reacted to his decision, the "resort romances" of the Barracuda air scout group and how not to lose his first UAV "Valkyrie."
Not belonging to yourself is the biggest fear
On the first trips, we offered our help to the Armed Forces of Ukraine units on the front line.
They were told: "We are free artists; we have "Valkyrie" , we can fly, and bring you a flash drive with intelligence in the morning with your coffee."
Slava Balbek
The "Barracuda" Air Scout Group chief
Someone answered: "Mobilisation is first, then we'll talk", but others said: "Oh, what was possible? We don't pay you, and you cover your needs." So, we started collecting intelligence data. In the process, we made many friends and received an invitation for the whole group to work officially.
I submitted the documents for the contract. At any moment, they will say: "Come, I take an oath, and drive away."
I decided to officially be in the military when I pushed myself to the limit of my abilities due to being a volunteer. There are tools that I cannot buy because I am not officially a military man.
Volunteers know that shells do not cause problems, only when you "cross the line" because there you are theirs. And when you're trying to buy the necessary things or go through training in the rear, everyone wants a request from a military unit. No request—goodbye.
The most challenging thing for me was to understand that I am now signing a contract and will be working for other people. For the last 15 years, I have worked only for myself.
My biggest fear is not belonging. I can and want more but will stand still without official registration.
Slava Balbek
The "Barracuda" Air Scout Group chief
He said to the fellas, "I'm mobilising. Who's with me?" Several brothers-in-arms also made this decision. I take this risk for access to specific resources, finances, and means.
I dream of changing the system from the inside, but for that you have to be in it.
Another reason I decided to mobilise is a heightened sense of justice. I can come to the rear for a week or two to work. This is unfair treatment of the guys who have been on the front lines for months. I want to be with them—to be a person—that is, to be honest, responsible, adequate, somewhat heroic, and fair.
The first combat mission of the "Barracuda" unit
It's funny that we borrowed the first Valkyrie. I completed the training and told my friends I wanted to work on the "bird", but there was no money to buy it. Now, we reflect on it, and I see how it happened. We didn't track the weather, and we didn't look where the wind was blowing. We wanted to launch the "board" [UAV] for the first combat mission.
It arrived in 15 minutes, turned around, and hung around like it stuck. We understood that the "Valkyrie" would not make it back, and it would cost 300,000 [hryvnias]. Then we asked the support service what to do. They said, "Let's push full on, but the battery will be charged out, and then it will fall."
We spent an hour and a half returning the "board" to our territory. It was still near Kupiansk.
Flying over the villages, they contacted the military: "This is our village; can we fall?" We were carried into the field as far as 30 kilometres.
We did not know if that area was mined. We approached there and moved forward step by step. It was very scary.
Everything that could go wrong in aerial reconnaissance happened on our first foray. We found the "bird" and decoded the data showing 12 different positions.
According to our intelligence, the guys eliminated four enemy tanks and two armoured personnel carriers during the night. And we are like: "Wow! Like, was it possible such a way?"
Slava Balbek
The "Barracuda" Air Scout Unit chief
We showed good statistics, then they just bought us a board. And this is how our monthly work began. We named the group "Resort Romance". And on the first day of a new month, we started a new "resort novel" — May, June, July, August.
A year ago, we made one flight in 10 days, and now we make 52 flights in 20 days.
The wife and the choice to fight
I didn't get a negative response from my wife when I said I decided to mobilise, but I didn't get a positive one either. We have a tacit agreement. I said that I had made a decision that, unfortunately, she could not influence.
There are many families where the wife forbade fighting. This should also be respected.
Usually, we make decisions together, but here, I made the choice myself. We have been together for 18 years—it is already like one organism. And here, one of the spouses says that he has decided. She helps me with silent support. There was no scandal—such tacit consent.
What is gentle mobilisation?
Now, there is a massive problem with personnel in all brigades because people are injured or die, and those who are left need rest. For the whole process not to stop, there must be a replacement at the front. This need is not decreasing but only increasing.
On the one hand, people are tired of hearing about the war, and on the other, people are tired of the daily work of war.
Slava Balbek
The "Barracuda" Air Scout Unit chief
You wake up at three in the morning, have breakfast, leave, go to bed, work, come back, and sleep. This reality must be conveyed to society. Understanding their civilian friends has been difficult for people fighting for the last two years. They have different values and perceptions of reality.
Voluntary "movement" is a gentle mobilisation, like you want honey but the bee stings.
In voluntary movement, they tell you, "Let's try to work with you. Go to an open training session and see how it works. Isn't it scary?" If not, we'll go to the front-line town and the first exit.
We look at how people behave. Thirty people come, and ten of them want to stay. However, this is a good percentage of volunteers.
Because there are Rambos who in the rear say: "Let’s go, let’s go," and after the first shelling: "Oh, my stomach is seized, my throat is tight, I'm home."
The war drags on, just like architecture.
I felt that everyone was equal in the war. Although the military has a different background, there is a feeling of unity and a common goal. People reset all their skills and accumulate them in the war based on previous experiences.
In the summer of 2022, I decided to volunteer. Since then, as if something "clicked". I switched entirely to war.
I recently spent ten days on rotation, and the guys stayed for 20. Therefore, I communicated with the unit for some time. We worked in parallel with two complexes. I sat in a coffee shop and coordinated three or four strike groups. I understood that the boys needed help.
The military had to write to me when they went to their positions, spread out, worked, took off, flew, sat down and returned. I recorded everything.
It superseded my civil interests and processes. Such a staff role involves such "just a little" involvement. It is as if you are not going to the task but as if you are there.
The military is like a business. The only thing here is not income or bankruptcy but life or death. War is as addictive as architecture. Now, the military is my life.
Slava Balbek
The "Barracuda" Air Scout Unit chief
However, the last time I pinched my sciatic nerve, I spent two months lying down, then sitting, in positions. They brought me in, put a [bulletproof] vest and weapons, and I managed the process in this way. I understood that it was a hint: "Slava, calm down! Breathe, think about your life; maybe you are doing something too quickly."
What motivates me, as an athlete, is that we succeed in some things, and some things do not. I'm preparing for a long distance, cause it's the only thing that saves my mental health.
The most common myths about war
People think only combat positions are needed in the army as if everything looks like this: "TRC, landing, death.". We sit down with the guys weekly and brainstorm what roles we need in our unit to be self-sufficient.
Staff roles are being recruited more than combat ones — logistics, media, warehouse, security, driver, cook, person who receives after departures and will be in touch. These roles are also in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Only a person has to show and offer himself.
My former architect employee came to the unit with the words: "I want to kill Russians." They said to him: "And what can you do?". He replied that he could do everything, both kill and drive a truck.
He was sent to Warsaw to collect shells from Kyiv. He asked for a weapon but became a driver. This is also a role without which everything else will not work. You are part of a great mechanism that currently works as it can. For now, relax and enjoy the process. Or take a "white ticket" [laughs - ed.].
We are currently rebuilding the army to a European format, but this will not happen in a year. It is necessary to think not in months, but in years, then something will change.
I also heard from people: "I am not good enough for war," "I was not born for this." The people now "in action" were also not born for war. They were programmers, designers, artists, whatever, but not military.
If you hold the economic front, you can also have this front, but for the army. It would be best if you found this motivation for yourself once. Switch and make a decision. Let it be for a year, two, three, or five—it's a trifle in the context of what we currently inscribe ourselves in Ukraine's history.
My friend and I ran a marathon from the village of New York in the Donetsk region to Kostiantynivka. Thus, we collected one and a half million for our friends — the Asgard unit.
Slava Balbek
The "Barracuda" Air Scout Unit chief
We ran a marathon, and bypassers thought we were ordered to do so by a combatant because a car with a military man accompanied us. In Kostyantynivka, we were asked: "Why are you doing that?".
On the next birthday, you have to swim some super distance. Well, that's cool. Why not? I am preparing to swim across the Tysa (jokes hinting at dodgers trying to cross the border illegally, not to serve in AFU - Ed.).
There are still people who think that it is too late to study, or a category of people who have "training syndrome".
Among ourselves, we call those who have been preparing for war for a long time the "tactical boy from the rocking chair" who forgot why he was training.
You don't have to wait for someone to call you somewhere. Build your place and direction. Now, 200 companies in Ukraine teach how to fly FPV drones. Now, the new trend is FPV planes. Explore the topic of auto-targeting, explore and learn.
My friend wrote to 10 different global telecommunication companies. Only two answered him. One of them developed a super antenna, which was accepted at the level of Zaluzhnyi, but he asked not to disclose the cooperation.
Absurd decisions regarding the restoration of Ukraine
I go abroad once every six months as a speaker or a participant in conferences because, so far, my 15 years of experience in architecture are more valuable. I'm learning at the front, but I've already achieved something.
Western partners do not have an accurate picture of the situation in Ukraine. I was at a conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine, where a doctor of architecture spoke and gave examples of making cities resistant to war. Yes, it was not about the fact that there would be no war but about how to make cities resistant to war.
He says: "I have a lot of experience in armed conflicts. Now I will give you three tips. The first is that we don't build houses near military infrastructure." They answer that the accuracy of the damage is plus or minus a kilometre. Also, targets are not only military facilities but also civilian infrastructure.
And then he continues: "I calculated that if cities are built low, not high, then rockets will fly by." I sit and wonder if he is serious.
He further explains: "Tall buildings are a large area of damage; small buildings are small." He is told that if the cluster of houses is closer, it is easier to cover them with a protective dome. If cities are spread out, it is more difficult to secure them.
His third piece of advice is: “I researched from the photos that the most extensive destruction is caused by the glass that breaks and the walls that fall. I propose building a concrete perimeter around the house at a setback. Then the glass will not break, but there will be no windows and doors.
And this is an actual report. I'm not kidding now. We all sat speechless. But the reality and understanding of the problem, unfortunately, is this.
When the war ends
Before the full-scale invasion, I was just an observer.
Now I think, "What did we do these eight years?” I can't find the answer to what I was doing all this time.
Slava Balbek
The "Barracuda" Air Scout Unit chief
Usually, awareness comes only after an event, not before it. In 2014, I bought myself a gun, took a course and learned to shoot. I helped our boys point by point.
I can't even call it regular inclusion. I cancelled all my friends from the Russian Federation, and that's it. It turns out that the "when the cow flies" was not so strong, but now the war affects everyone.
A hero can be a person who is on the front line for half a year, and no one knows about him. She didn't do anything heroic, but there is a position that no one would want to be in, even for half a day. And there are "heroes" who made a decision at HQ and received a reward.
There are slobs to whom it is essential to show a photo in the outfit to gain likes. Someone who works does not want to be known about him. They quietly do their work. Some media people draw attention to the war.
I'm just sharing what's going on in my life. I don't have a mission to tell everyone how bad or good it is at the front, where betrayal happens and where it doesn't.
After 2014, there was an outbreak of proactive people. Currently, this pendulum cannot be stopped. Even if there is no means, it will work. Unfortunately, our society only acts as a single organism when something goes wrong.
I used to react emotionally to tragic events. For now, the feelings are dulled. I no longer think: "F**k, I get a machine gun and show you all", but on the contrary - the level of emotionality has fallen. I am thinking about how to do it better to be faster and more efficient, not so I tear my shirt and move on.
I will fight as long as I have the strength.
I want Ukrainians to believe in themselves and listen to themselves. If you expect someone to do something for you or hand over a weapon every time, you will not get very far. You need to forget about support and help and rely on yourself.
The question is not simply to surrender and punish the enemy, but to destroy him. If you have the desire and are, as they say, "boner", you can do military work anywhere and anytime.
Earlier, we were waiting for Wunderwaffe, Patron the Dog, etc. The results of the last two years showed that there is no need to wait.
At present, everything must be done for the army's sake —absolutely everything. Give the last hryvnias to donate, and then we will deal with it.
Slava Balbek
The "Barracuda" Air Scout Unit chief
I feel that the active phase of the war will end in 2025, and then it will be passive. However, we will not go back. I will fight as long as I have strength, which will last many years.
