ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION, Ukraine — Below the duvet of darkness, leaning ahead beneath the load of packs and rifles, a squad of troopers walked alongside a muddy lane and slipped right into a village home.
They have been Ukrainian soldiers of the 117th Separate Mechanized Brigade, assembling for a final briefing and roll name a number of miles from Russia positions earlier than heading to the trenches on the entrance line. Stolid males in helmets and rubber boots, they listened in silence as an intelligence officer briefed them on a brand new route in to their positions.
“Morale is all proper,” stated the deputy battalion commander, who makes use of the decision signal Shira, standing close by to see the lads off. “However bodily we’re exhausted.”
Ukrainian troops alongside a lot of the 600-mile entrance line are formally in defensive mode. Solely within the southern area of Kherson are they nonetheless on the offensive in a tough assault throughout the Dnipro River.
However the preventing has not eased and Russian forces are actually on the offensive.
The seize of the city of Robotyne within the southeastern Zaporizhzhia area was far as Ukrainian troops managed to advance of their summer time counteroffensive. No breakthrough occurred. Now, within the trenches round Robotyne, Russian items are attacking each day. Ukrainian troops attempt to counterattack instantly in the event that they lose floor, commanders stated.
“It’s one thing like a sport of Ping-Pong,” stated a Ukrainian Nationwide Guard platoon commander who makes use of the decision signal Planshet, which means “pill.” “There’s a portion of 100 to 200 meters of floor at all times being taken and retaken,” he stated.
Certainly, Ukrainian troopers and commanders interviewed in current weeks alongside a broad stretch of the central and japanese entrance stated that Russian assaults have been so intense that working close to the frontline has by no means been so harmful.
Russia has in current days turned its focus to bombing Ukraine’s big cities to put on down civilians; for weeks its floor forces have been mounting assaults to claw again territory misplaced final summer time and to grab long-prized Ukrainian redoubts alongside the japanese entrance.
Properly accustomed to Russian artillery hearth, troopers stated that since March that they had suffered the extra devastating energy of glide bombs, half-ton explosives unleashed from planes that smash by means of underground bunkers.
“They might ship them two by two by two, eight in an hour,” stated a 27-year-old soldier often called Equipment, of the 14th Chervona Kalyna Nationwide Guard Brigade. Like others interviewed, Equipment recognized himself by his name signal, based on army protocol. “It appears like a jet coming down on you,” he stated, “like hell’s gate.”
The destruction wrought by glide bombs is seen in cities and villages close to the entrance line. The city of Orikhiv, about 12 miles north of Robotyne, as soon as served as a command heart for the counteroffensive. Now it’s an empty shell, the principle road abandoned, the varsity and different buildings cut up asunder by huge bomb craters.
A lone workman, Valera, was using a bicycle by means of the city. He stated he had stayed regardless of the heavy bombardment as a result of he had paid work, fixing mills. He lived off humanitarian help and was feeding 20 stray cats at his residence, he stated.
Troopers moved cautiously within the space, principally residing in basements and staying undercover, out of sight.
That’s as a result of the most recent menace is Russia’s use of F.P.V. kamikaze drones, which has compelled Ukrainian troopers largely to desert autos in frontline areas and function on foot.
An inexpensive business drone, the F.P.V. — for first particular person view — has grow to be the most recent weapon of the second within the Ukrainian struggle. It could possibly fly as quick as a automotive, carries a deadly load of explosives and is guided to its goal by a soldier sitting in a bunker a number of miles away.
Each the Russian and Ukrainian armies are utilizing them to hunt and assault targets as a result of they lower out the delay of relaying again coordinates and requesting artillery strikes. Ukrainian troopers stated they typically use the drones as a substitute of artillery as a result of shells have been more and more briefly provide and the drones are an inexpensive, fast weapon for assaults on close by Russian autos, bunkers and infantry.
Army items from each side put up movies on-line of their profitable strikes, which finish with a scrambled black display screen for the time being of detonation. A number of Ukrainian drone items allowed journalists from The New York Occasions to look at reside operations from positions close to the entrance line as they tracked Russian troopers and attacked chosen targets.
One unit confirmed movies of successful that destroyed Russian surveillance cameras and an antenna on an workplace constructing. One other focused a Russian bunker in a tree line, though the drone was deflected by Russian digital jamming earlier than impression.
Just one in a number of drones hits its goal, and plenty of are misplaced to jamming and different interference, troopers stated.
For these on the receiving finish of F.P.V. drones, defending and supplying the entrance line have grow to be more and more dangerous.
“This can be very harmful to go by automotive,” stated a Ukrainian Nationwide Guardsman, who makes use of the decision signal Varvar. Males of his unit stated that since September that they had been leaving their armored autos and strolling in six miles to positions. “You’ll be able to solely go in on foot,” Varvar stated.
The boys of the 117th Brigade, who have been deploying to the entrance line within the Zaporizhzhia area on a current night time, confronted a four-mile hike by means of rain and dirt, the intelligence commander stated. In the event that they have been wounded and captured, Russian troops would execute them, he warned them.
The lengthy, arduous slog to hold in ammunition and meals to provide troops and to hold out the wounded was one purpose Ukraine couldn’t maintain its counteroffensive, an organization commander, Adolf, 23, stated.
Ambulances and provide autos got here beneath hearth from kamikaze drones so typically that his unit stopped utilizing them, resorting as a substitute to a four-wheeled buggy that volunteer engineers rigged as much as carry a stretcher. The buggy was hidden beneath some timber beside his command put up a number of miles from the entrance line.
Ukrainian items are dealing out the identical therapy with F.P.V. drones on Russian strains and say they have been the primary to start out utilizing drones to assault targets. However the Russians have copied the tactic and flooded frontline areas with drones in current weeks, to deadly impact, Ukrainian troopers and commanders stated.
“My impression is Russia is excited about drones on the state degree,” the soldier often called Equipment stated, however in distinction, Ukraine nonetheless largely relied on volunteers and civilian donors for its drone program. “My sense,” he stated, “is the federal government needs to be doing extra.”
The Russians have been using subterfuge as effectively, Planshet stated, taking part in tapes of gunfire on drones to make Ukrainian troopers suppose they have been beneath assault, go away the bunkers and reveal their positions.
Some members of his platoon stated the Russians used drones to drop smoke grenades into their trenches. One soldier, who makes use of the decision signal Medic, stated it appeared like a type of tear gasoline.
“It causes a really sturdy ache within the eyes and a hearth, like a chunk of coal, in your throat and you can’t breathe,” he stated.
A number of troopers donned gasoline masks to deal with the lads affected, however when two males within the platoon crawled from the bunker to flee the gasoline, they have been killed by grenades dropped from Russian drones hovering above, troopers stated.
The toll is heavy for all items alongside the entrance. Virtually everybody has been wounded or survived a slender escape in current months, troopers stated.
“We’re wanting folks,” stated an intelligence commander of the 117th Brigade who makes use of the decision signal Banderas, after the actor. “We have now weapons however not sufficient males.”
But many stay optimistic. Farther east within the Donetsk area, Maj. Serhii Betz, a battalion commander of the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade, set out earlier than daybreak on a current day, driving down muddy roads rutted with ice to test on his drone items near the entrance line. He invited New York Occasions journalists alongside.
The groups work underground, in bunkers lined with tree trunks and lined with earth. On a pc monitor, the commander switched on a livestream drone feed from a neighboring brigade the place a battle was unfolding.
“Russian tanks coming into the village,” a commander stated over a walkie-talkie. “Is every little thing prepared?” the most important requested the drone group. “A tank is a cool goal to destroy; let’s assist our brothers.”
Mice scurried by means of their bunker, rustling in a garbage bag, because the newly deployed group, contemporary from coaching, fiddled with wiring and switches to get an F.P.V. airborne over the Russians’ positions for his or her first strike.
They have been too gradual, and their first two flights crashed, downed by Russian digital jamming.
However the main was happy. “We’re growing,” he stated.
Olha Konovalova contributed reporting from the Zaporizhzhia area, and Christiaan Triebert from Auriac-du-Périgord, France.
