When The Sound From A Drone Is Not The Sound From A Harley-Davidson

27 December 2025- Odessa, Ukraine

The night begins as most do- not if, but when drones, missiles, and rockets arrive to the Black Sea port city of Odessa to impact its approximately one million residents. 

Approximately 9:15 pm, there are the distinctive sounds of drones, missiles, and rockets.  Moments later the sky is illuminated by artillery from the armed forces of Ukraine- most visible are the entrails, the tracers, orange and red in color, that show the direction and reflect intensity of the defense. 

A nearby rooftop enclosed post-Christmas and pre-New Year’s Day gathering of employees from a Ukraine-based company remain where they are- the music is too loud and too contained and the dance lighting too distracting for most to notice what is happening outside. 

The impact from the incoming for nearly thirty minutes is thunderous- as in the building vibrates.  Windows pulse.  The concussion moves the body.  The noise is moment-to-moment deafening.  Most of the incoming are destroyed above the Black Sea prior to reaching land.  Some are destroyed over land which then creates an add-on concern about what destruction will be caused by the debris of what was destroyed and by the debris of what did the destroying.  On impact very near and the reaction there must now be a huge crater. 

28 December 2025- Odessa, Ukraine 

Sounds can be comforting and terrifying. 

At 4:15 am, on the Black Sea coastline of Odessa there are again the distinctive sounds of drones, missiles, and rockets.   

The duration is neither as long nor the impact as intense as in the previous seven hours. 

This morning is sunny or mostly sunny.  A breeze transitions to wind.  Few clouds.  Snow expected later in the day.  For now, the beginning of a nice Sunday. 

At 9:09 am, a barrage of outgoing as the armed forces of Ukraine seeks to destroy something.  The sky is clear, so challenging to see what they are targeting.  Until there it is, heading from the Black Sea directly toward land.  A slow-moving drone.  With the sky so clear, everything about the drone is visible.   

Almost resembling an inbound aircraft on approach to an airport.  It does not look threatening.  It comes nearer.  The barrage to intercept it continues.  The drone travels directly overhead, again painfully slowly, almost slow-motion, and onward into the city of Odessa.  More sounds of efforts to destroy it.  Then silence.  Then a noise.  It has impacted a building.  No casualties reported. 

Across the bay, another barrage.  The incoming is destroyed and hurdles to the ground (or near the coastline) in fire and smoke. 

At 10:58 am, another barrage can be heard- the armed forces of Ukraine firing into the sky to destroy, detour, disrupt an incoming drone, missile, or rocket.  The speed of the wind has increased.  The temperature has decreased. 

The visual of watching a slow-moving drone can almost be hypnotic.  It is easy to fixate on the physicality of the shape, the humming, noise which is the voice of the engine.  

In the United States, the sound of an accelerating Harley-Davidson motorcycle is distinctive- most children and adults instantly recognize it.  The sound is not threatening.  Quite the opposite.  Heads turn to locate it, see it.  It’s recognizable in a good way. 

In Ukraine, the sound of an incoming drone, missile, or rocket is distinctive- most children and adults instantly recognize it and can distinguish between each.  The sound is not comforting.  The sound is threatening.  Heads turn to locate it, see it.  However, the goal is to avoid it. 

During World War II, there were for residents of London, United Kingdom, the dreaded humming of the V1 missile (from the German Army) and the V2 rocket (from the German Luftwaffe) launched across the English channel.  The V1 traveled relatively slowly- it could be seen during daylight not dissimilar from the drones used today by the armed forces of the Russian Federation.  At night, the flare from a V1 engine was a visible indicator of location and trajectory.  The V2 traveled fast and was quieter making its anticipatory detection and destruction far more difficult. 

On 24 February 2026, citizens of Ukraine will begin their fifth year of engaged in a war with the armed forces of the Russian Federation. 

• On 24 February 2022, the armed forces of the Russian Federation invaded and further invaded the territory of Ukraine in what Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation (2000-2008 and 2012- ), defined first as a Special Military Operation (SMO) and on 22 December 2022 defined as a war.  The initial invasion of Ukraine by the armed forces of the Russian Federation was in part from the territory of Belarus.    

• The war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine did not commence on 24 February 2022.  The roots began their trajectories on 20 February 2014 when the armed forces of the Russian Federation invaded the Crimean Peninsula and the area known as the Donbas Region (Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast). 

• As of 28 December 2025, the armed forces of the Russian Federation control approximately 19.5% of the internationally-recognized territory of Ukraine.  100% of the Crimean Peninsula.  Approximately 99% of Luhansk Oblast.  Approximately 83% of Donetsk Oblast.  Approximately 75% of Kherson Oblast.  Approximately 75% of Zaporizhzhia Oblast.  Very small portions (less than 1%) within Kharkiv Oblast, Mykolaiv Oblast, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and Sumy Oblast.