Russian Forces ‘Operate In A One-Way Manner’ As Ukraine’s Drones Swarm

A few weeks after finally capturing the ruins of Chasiv Yar, a town in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast that was a locus of a yearlong Russian offensive, the Russian survivors are bogged down in and around the town.

“The main reason for the lack of success remains the enemy’s air dominance,” a Russian military blogger complained in a missive translated by Estonian analyst WarTranslated. “Their reconnaissance drones are in the sky 24/7, and any movement on our part is immediately met with a massive wave of [first-person-view] drones.”

Russian infantry can’t leave their trenches. When they do, “we just lose people without achieving anything,” the blogger wrote. Any armored vehicles the Russian 3rd and 8th Combined Arms Armies deploy “essentially operate in a one-way manner,” the blogger added.

Russian supply lines are also being squeezed by farther-flying Ukrainian “road cutter” drones that prowl the main roads toward the front line. Despite the Russians erecting anti-drone netting over long stretches of road, “logistics is also suffering,” the blogger reported.

And any attempt by Russian drone teams to match the Ukrainians’ aerial firepower also runs into the same problem the infantry and supply columns run into: Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles are everywhere, all the time. “The enemy has been actively hunting our UAV teams,” according to the blogger.

All-seeing drones

When the Russians do manage to launch their own drones, many of them run into effective Ukrainian jamming that can sever the radio links that connect them to their operators. More Russian drone teams are using unjammable fiber-optic drones that send and receive signals via miles-long spools of thin wire, but these drones are comparatively expensive—and thus still pretty rare along the front line.

Ukraine’s all-seeing drones aren’t just a problem around Chasiv Yar. Early Thursday morning, a Russian assault group with no fewer than 25 vehicles and potentially hundreds of troops attacked positions manned by the Ukrainian army’s 24th Mechanized Brigade around Pokrovsk, a fortress city in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast, 40 miles southwest of Chasiv Yar.

The Russians were spotted by a drone with an infrared camera and then “met with warmth,” the 24th Mechanized Brigade reported. “Infantry, artillery and drone crews did everything to make the invaders’ journey unforgettable.”

As the sun rose, 14 of the attacking vehicles were destroyed or immobilized. The rest retreated, five of them damaged. At least 33 Russians died, according to the 24th Mechanized Brigade.

The Kremlin is shipping new electronic-warfare radio jammers in a desperate effort to protect assault groups, the blogger explained. But they don’t work very well. “The enemy adapts extremely quickly, changing frequencies,” according to the blogger, “while our E.W. systems at best cover less than half the frequencies they use.”