They sang in the same band. Drone warfare gave them whole new professions.

Vlad, pictured left, and Andriy, pictured right, serve in the VORON drone battalion of the 100th Mechanized Brigade. Andriy "Granat" Vlad and Andriy sang in the same quartet for 10 years, until the war in Ukraine began. They're now in the same drone unit, fighting in Donetsk. Vlad has risen to become a military commander, while Andriy manages social media for his battalion. Before Russia, Vlad and Andriy's battle was with COVID. The pandemic had blown a gaping hole in the incomes of the two singers, who'd performed for a decade in an a cappella quartet. The group was named Luciano — after their hometown, Lutsk, and the Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti — and they played folk and classical music at weddings, birthdays, and corporate events. During lockdowns, the side jobs they relied on to stay afloat, like Vlad's restaurant work and Andriy's bartending, had disappeared as well. But just as the coronavirus's grip on Ukraine faded, Russia stormed in. "At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, we were given some performances, but it was mostly to raise money for charity," Vlad, now the deputy commander of the VORON drone battalion of Ukraine's 100th Mechanized Brigade, told Business Insider. As the war dragged on, he and Andriy swapped their tuxedos for the fatigues and olive sweaters of Ukraine's military, serving in the VORON combat drone unit in Donetsk. Business Insider is identifying them only by their first names for security purposes. Vlad enlisted first, joining the 100th in July 2022, when attack drones were a novelty and the war was still being measured in weeks. It's been four years since — time that Vlad spent coordinating drone strikes and leading troops in the trenches. Andriy, who's pursued music since first grade, joined VORON in 2024 and runs its social media pages, editing and uploading video clips of battle drones striking Russian soldiers and vehicles. Andriy has been pursuing music since first grade. Now he's not sure if he'll return to it. Andriy