I was a deputy mayor for a small town in Essex. Now I make drones in Ukraine

Warning: The following story contains content that some readers may find distressing.

KYIV – Sitting on a wooden stool in an underground workshop in Ukraine’s capital, surrounded by racks of drones, Stephen Stratton describes his journey from deputy major of a small town in Essex to being a manufacturer of deadly weapons in Ukraine.

The organisation he is part of, Klyn, which delivers drones to Ukraine’s front lines, is funded almost entirely by donations from domestic and international donors.

After training as a nurse, Stephen, 62, from Maldon, Essex, spent around two years in the British Army’s Parachute Regiment, before moving into the Royal Air Force Reserves, in order to spend more time with his partner and newborn son.

He returned to his previous work as a nurse after leaving the Army, and he told The i Paper, he had always been involved in volunteering work: “That collective will to help people in any concern is something that I’ve always aligned to.”

However, tears came to his eyes when he recalled the event that led to him first run for office in the UK, and then ultimately led him to Ukraine: the suicide of his son Joe.

“He was 32 and his mother and I found him dead and I never recovered,” Stratton said.

He described the period following his Joe’s death in 2018 as “very dark days”, which prompted him to move home to distance himself from the tough memories. “I was very unwell and then Covid came,” he said. “I just became really, really overwhelmed.”

Stephen, who lived in social housing at the time, requested to be relocated and was moved to nearby Burnham-on-Crouch. “I didn’t know anyone,” he said. “I started to just have coffees in the local coffee shops and people were really understanding and welcoming.

“It was at the time the elections were happening. So I thought, I want to meet people, I want to make some new friends, and what better way to do it than to help the community? That’s why I stood.”

Stephen ran for local office, not expecting to win, but in May 2023 he was elected as an independent councillor and within a year had become the deputy mayor.

While serving as deputy mayor, he was drawn to media reports of bereaved parents in Ukraine. “It’s the reason I came here,” he said. “I felt quite literally that I can relate to the people, whatever the circumstances. If you lose a child, you never recover from that.

“In the end, I thought, ‘Well, there was something I can relate to,’ I just wanted to go there. I didn’t know what I was going to do.”

In March last year, Stephen packed his bags and headed off, with no clear plan in mind. He said he bought a van and “just got in and drove here. It took me two days. I had no idea where I was going, and then ended up in Kyiv”.

He ended up volunteering for Klyn, which was founded in 2024. “I’d set my mind on working with either animals in an animal sanctuary or working with drones but I felt that working with drones was out of my capacity. I had no idea or anything about them,” he said.

But days after arriving in Kyiv, he met Kseniia Kalmus, the founder of Klyn. Under the guidance of colleagues, Stephen began volunteering for the charity and “one year later, I’m here still… I only anticipated being here a couple of weeks, but as it kind of went on, I just got more and more involved”.

Beyond assembling drones, he told The i Paper that he was now building a team of Ukrainian and international volunteers to ramp up Klyn’s production capabilities.

He ended up relinquishing his role as deputy mayor in the UK to focus on his commitment to Ukraine, going back and forth between the two countries.

He is not the only one at Klyn who lacked prior technical experience. Kalmus previously worked as a florist, while Stephen’s colleague Christina was a linguist before she began assembling drones for the military.

“For me, the war started in 2014, because I’m from Crimea and this is when Russians occupied Crimea,” Christina, 32, told The i Paper. She builds drones “from zero to the very last stage, when they are ready to be used on the front lines… Everything I know and can do now with the drones was learned here.”

Drones have played a key role in hampering Russian gains and pushing back its forces. Meanwhile, support from Ukraine’s international partners has been crucial in its bid to conquer the skies, not least from the UK, which recently unveiled the biggest-ever drone package for Ukraine.

On the outskirts of Kyiv, another NGO has tailored its services to supporting drone operators on the front line – offering a crash course for military personnel in using the weapons.

The Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation has “changed enormously” since Russia’s invasion began in 2022, Andrii Shuvalov, its CEO, told The i Paper. Shuvalov said the organisation had expanded its operations from providing aid to vulnerable communities during the Covid pandemic, to supporting the military through training and the provision of equipment – including gathering funds to help buy Ukrainian intelligence a satellite.

The satellite was used in Operation Spiderweb, in which first-person-view (FPV) drones were smuggled into Russia and used to take out Russian aircraft.

“We became the first country in the world where the population pooled funds for their army, for the Main Directorate of Intelligence, to buy a satellite and gain access to constellations,” Shuvalov said.

The i Paper visited one of its military training centres at an undisclosed location near Kyiv, where soldiers were using game simulations to learn how to fly both attack and reconnaissance drones. They then go outside to operate real versions on the organisation’s drill grounds, to prepare for the front lines.

For Stratton, the experience of helping Ukraine is both rewarding and daunting. He said that being away from his remaining family – including his twin sister and Joe’s mother – as well as becoming accustomed to regular aerial attacks from Russia, was no easy task.

“It’s difficult being here, I miss my family,” he said. “It’s difficult for me being detached… from home in a way after losing my son because I feel more distance from him than I ever [did].” He said he returns to the UK on his son’s birthday every April.

At the same time, the terror of Russian air strikes continue to spook him: “You can hear ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, over your rooftops and the windows are rattling, the car alarms are going on, there’s explosions, there’s anti-aircraft guns which you not only see the flashes of, but you can hear – they’re next to your apartment.”

However, asked how his son would see his decision to go to Ukraine to help its war efforts, Stephen told The i Paper: “He would be very proud.

“I know he’s looking after me because he sends me signs all the time and I know it’s Joe. I know it is.”

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