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For Short

Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch — or Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, for "short."

What looks like an authentic Welsh name (it means "Saint Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the Church of Saint Tysilio of the red cave") is actually a 1860s publicity stunt meant to attract tourists to this village on the island of Anglesey in Wales.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

Drones, Tablets, Cigarettes: How Ukraine's Reconnaissance Warriors Pinpoint The Enemy

Near the embattled city of Vuhledar, Ukrainian artillery reconnaissance units detect enemy positions. They work with drones, tablets and satellite internet — and they are often the last line of defense from a Russian onslaught.

Image of a soldier from the 56th Mariupol Motorized Brigade looking straight into  his DJI Matrice 300 RTK quad copter.

A soldier from the 56th Mariupol Motorized Brigade showing a DJI Matrice 300 RTK quad copter.

Anatolii Schara

VUHLEDAR — It's early in the morning, just before dawn. The artillery reconnaissance units are in Kurakhove, a city in Donetsk oblast, to pick up the equipment supplies that have just arrived from Kyiv: drones, tablets, portable solar power generators and Internet hardware for connection to the Starlink satellite system.

Because of the tremendous strain on the equipment, it needs to be constantly replaced. Everything is loaded into all-terrain vehicles, then they head toward the fiercely contested city of Vuhledar, in southeastern Ukraine, 60 kilometers from Donetsk.

"The task of artillery reconnaissance is to locate and fix enemy targets and to conduct artillery observation," explains commander Zeus, who only gives his combat name, in line with the policy of the Ukrainian army.

Artillery fire is mainly indirect. The target is not visible from the gun, which is usually located four to ten kilometers from the front line.

On the car radio, the music ends, the presenter announces in a solemn voice that Ukrainian troops are retreating in panic from Vuhledar. The men are unimpressed; they know that only Russian stations work in the frontline area.

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