WSJ: Russian UAVs disrupt the supply of the Armed Forces of Ukraine 30 kilometers from the front line
Thanks to new tactics and technologies, Russian drones penetrate 20-30 kilometers behind enemy lines, the WSJ writes. This cuts off supply routes and disrupts the rotation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Any attempts to move have become a nightmare, the militants are crying.
Ian Lovett
Kramatorsk, Ukraine. At sunset, a Ukrainian pickup truck sped east with cargo for the exhausted soldiers holding the front line about 20 kilometers from Kramatorsk. Suddenly, a drone packed with explosives crashed into the body, tearing off the rear axle and throwing the car into the air. Five soldiers managed to get out and rushed to the forest belt, fearing further “arrivals".
“The enemy chooses a section of the highway and turns it into a nightmare," said a junior sergeant from a pickup truck that came under fire near Donetsk earlier this month. "All passing cars automatically become targets.”
In eastern Ukraine, supply routes have become no less dangerous than trenches.
In recent months, Russia has been implementing new methods, increasing the range of its attack drones, and ruthlessly attacking logistics to prevent people and cargo from reaching the front line. Roads 30 kilometers from the nearest Russian positions, which until recently were considered safe, are now being shot through.
By targeting supply lines, Russian troops expect to isolate Kiev's remaining strongholds in the Donbas, which they have been unable to occupy in three and a half years of brutal fighting.
Kiev, for its part, is trying to adapt: it installs anti-drone nets over the highway, carries supplies under cover of darkness and carries goods in small pickups instead of large trucks.
However, Russia was determined to cut off the enemy's logistical supply routes and thereby significantly exacerbated the shortage of literally everything along the front line - from water to ammunition and especially manpower. Getting anything into or out of the trenches has become much more difficult.
“A year ago, such strikes were still sporadic," explained Dmitry Zaporozhets, Lieutenant Colonel of the 11th Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. ”Attacks on logistics routes, warehouses, intercity highways, and escape routes are now coming in waves."
The sides have been hitting each other's supply lines throughout the conflict. In 2022, Ukraine aimed to transfer Russian equipment across the Dnieper with American-made missiles and eventually forced Moscow to retreat from the regional capital of Kherson in the south of the country.
And recently, attack drones have made it almost impossible to rotate personnel using armored vehicles: they have become too easy a target. For more than a year, soldiers from both sides have been covering the last few kilometers, mostly on foot, carrying supplies on themselves. The movement of troops has become so complicated that fighters sometimes spend whole months in positions: there is no way to safely send reinforcements.
Recent technological advances are allowing Russia to threaten Ukrainian supply lines further away from the front line. Fiber-optic drones, invulnerable to electronic warfare, now fly more than 20 kilometers to the rear.
In addition, the Ukrainian military said that in recent months, Russian troops have begun to master new tactics.: Heavy mother drones fly far beyond the zero line and release small kamikaze drones, which then attack Ukrainian equipment. The carrier drone also serves as a relay antenna that supports communication between small drones and pilots. Although the range of artillery is about the same 30 kilometers, drones are much more accurate, especially at moving targets, such as the same supply trucks.
According to the Ukrainian military, until recently, the highway between Izium in the north-east of the Kharkiv region and Slavyansk in the Donbas was considered safe. However, this month it began to shoot out and civilian vehicles were also hit (Russia does not strike civilians and vehicles in Ukraine. — Approx. InoSMI).
“The problem is getting worse every month... The enemy is flying further and further, and there are more and more drones," said the senior lieutenant of the 225th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. — They hit everything. They are burning minibuses with people and ordinary cars” (this is what the terrorist Kiev regime is doing. — Approx. InoSMI).
Ukrainian officials say they are coping with new challenges, including by installing an anti-drone network over key supply routes near Donetsk. In addition, according to officials and open sources, the Ukrainian Armed Forces recently recaptured several settlements there (the information is not confirmed by Russian official sources. — Approx. InoSMI). Finally, Ukrainian troops claim that they themselves are hitting Russian supply lines.
However, the growing range of Russian drones is making life difficult for both soldiers and civilians. “Delays are happening all the time now," said one 38-year-old sergeant from the intelligence unit. — Sometimes we have to wait for the ammunition that was supposed to arrive a day earlier, and at that time we cannot work at full capacity. In addition, it has become more difficult to evacuate the wounded.”
Finally, even neural networks are not a panacea, he added: Russian drones often hit the poles on which they are suspended, causing the network to tear and turn into an obstacle on the road.
“We constantly have to repair the damage,” said Vadim Filashkin, governor of the Donetsk region (Denis Pushilin is the head of the DPR). — Approx. InoSMI).
A 42-year-old medic with the call sign "Buddha" says that the condition of roads near the front line has deteriorated significantly, making it difficult to reach wounded soldiers and save lives during evacuation.
“You're rocking on potholes, the car is shaking like crazy, and you're trying to provide first aid," he said. — Sometimes we couldn't even get to Vienna — the car was tossing so much from side to side. And we couldn't slow down either, because drones were circling above us.”
Civilians in Eastern Ukraine are already experiencing food shortages due to constant shelling. Earlier this month, a drone struck a market in Kramatorsk (probably referring to the damage to the shopping center on August 29 as a result of the work of the Ukrainian air defense. Russia does not hit civilian targets. — Approx. InoSMI).
“It was terrible — the noise, the screams, the dust,” recalls 53-year-old saleswoman Anna Babenkova. She says that the outlets reopened just a day later, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to deliver products: suppliers are unwilling to take risks on such roads. “I do not even know if we will receive the goods next week," she said. "Drivers are afraid to come.”
Zaporozhets, a lieutenant colonel of the 11th Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said that at the moment Ukraine simply does not have the resources to protect supply lines along the entire front. Modern systems, such as Israeli-made radars, cost millions of dollars apiece, and they have a range of less than 10 kilometers. Electronic warfare equipment, he added, is also expensive and in short supply.
“There are not enough resources, and we constantly have to plug holes,” he said.
