In the six months since Russia launched its renewed attack on Ukraine, the US and its NATO allies have sent billions of dollars' worth of modern weaponry to help the country hold the line.
The security aid has helped the Ukrainian forces a lot, but they have also put their creativity to use, turning what they have on hand into deadly weapons.
The best example of this is their conversion of pickup trucks and SUVs into militarized vehicles.
The Ukrainians have done a great job in their fight against the Russians. The Moskva, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, was sunk by the Neptune missile.
Commercial drones have been turned into grenade-lobbing machines that are killing Russian troops.
Within a few weeks of the start of Russia's attack on February 24, shops and small factories had popped up inside and outside of Ukraine to convert pickup trucks and SUVs, many of them donated from abroad, into battlefield vehicles.
Technicals are easy to make and don't require specialized training to operate, and footage from the ground shows that Ukrainians have been quite inventive in using them.
The standard configuration of Ukrainian technicals has a heavy machine gun on the back of the vehicle, but other innovative modifications have been seen in action.
A Ukrainian unit used technicals to create mobile hunter-killer mobile anti-aircraft teams that could engage Russian aircraft. A video from the unit shows a group of Ukrainians dismounting after spotting an enemy target and engaging it with missiles.
A Ukrainian unit used a technical to make a makeshift multiple launch rocket system, firing rockets at Russians before moving to a new firing position.
Ukrainian troops fired FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missiles from their pickup trucks.
Technicals are being used by the Ukrainians to counter Russia's counter-battery fire.
A retired US Army Delta Force operator told Insider that the platform offers a lot of flexibility.
"We used them because they allowed us to blend into the environment and get closer to the target without being shot at, but the Ukrainians are using them because that is one of the things that is available to them," the retired operator said.
Boris Johnson, the British prime minister at the time, said in April that the UK was looking at the possibility of sending technicals with missiles to the Ukrainian military.
The retired operator said that the technical has stood up to the challenges of a modern day battlefield. The Ukrainian technical is faring well against a proper military in the air space.
Heavy weapons and fighters have been a staple of modern battlefields, but "technicals" gained attention in the early days of the US-led war on terror.
The CIA started using them in Afghanistan in 2001. The technical became an important part of the kit. US troops were forced into armored vehicles because of the threat of IEDs.
The retired Delta operator said that technicals were one of the trademarks of the war on terror because they were easy to drive.
The best vehicle to turn into a technical is the Toyota Hilux. It can take a serious beating and keep going.
Delta Force, a tier-one special missions unit specializing in hostage-rescue and counterterrorism operations, developed its own technicals that looked like regular Toyotas but were equipped with smoke grenades, radios, and bulletproof windows.
The practice moved around. US Army Green Berets, Navy Seals, and operators from other coalition militaries started using technicals to blend in.
The retired operator said that they made them look like they were just another vehicle. "That gave us an extra layer of security, as the enemy, or anyone else for that matter, couldn't tell we were Americans from afar," he said.
A Hellenic Army veteran, a defense journalist specializing in special operations, and a graduate of a prestigious university are just some of the things that Stavros Atlamazoglou is. He is working on a master's degree in strategy and cyber security at the school.
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