Latest news with #Bakhmut
Telegraph
a day ago
- General
- Telegraph
Down the road of death, littered with burning vehicles and covered with drone nets,
Fermín Torrano travels into Pokrovsk, home to the most intense fighting of the war. The flames of a burning car illuminate the roadside, and Andrii puts his foot down: Seventy. Eighty. Ninety-five miles per hour. Two of his comrades lean out the windows, scanning the darkness. A fourth Ukrainian soldier rides in the truck bed, with an AKS-74U in hand. A sharp beep cuts through the air as the anti-drone system flashes on the screen: it's the second warning we've had. 'If you see a drone, jump and run after me. Forget your stuff. Understood?' Femida, a drone pilot with the 68th Ukrainian Brigade, said before we climbed into the vehicle. No one speaks now. The roar of artillery, the rush of wind through open windows, and the steady hum of the tires fill the silence. The road narrows ahead and is lined by the charred skeletons of cars that never made it through. The anti-drone nets cover just a short stretch of this route. The rest is down to luck. This is the entrance to Pokrovsk. The Telegraph entered the city to spend 24 hours with a Ukrainian unit defending what is mostly ruins. Few journalists are allowed into the most violent part of the front line at such a critical time. Ukraine is fighting tooth and nail here to prevent Moscow from taking what would be its biggest prize since capturing Bakhmut in 2023. At stake is a launchpad for Russia to push further west as part of a summer offensive that is already gaining momentum. The city itself has been all but destroyed after almost a year of fighting. The attrition rate is high, but the soldiers continue to hold on. Entering Pokrovsk 'Son of a b----!' Andrii slams on the brakes. The 4x4 stops dead on the edge of the city where an abandoned car blocks the road ahead. Andrii punches the steering wheel, then swerves and drives around the blockage to take another route. The tires kick up rubble and shards of metal as we proceed past pockmarked houses and tall apartment blocks, some caved in by Russian air strikes. What is left of Pokrovsk no longer has traffic lights or signs. The drone detector beeps again. Once. Twice. A third, after a pause. Andrii veers off the road and pulls up between two buildings. Our team is receiving live orders through the Starlink satellite uplink fixed to the roof of the pick-up. Under the canopy of some trees, two civilians grill meat. Graves have been dug in nearby gardens for neighbours with no other place to be buried. Remarkably, between 2,000 and 3,000 people still live here, less than 5 per cent of the pre-war population. Water, electricity and gas were cut off months ago. This devastated city still matters to its last weary people, many of whom have nowhere else to go. It also matters strategically, and to the military units embedded in the debris, perhaps more than ever. Once a key logistics hub for Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region, the fall of Pokrovsk would open the gate to Dnipro and give Russian forces a path north. Its capture is a step closer to full control of Eastern Ukraine, Putin's main goal since his armoured columns were forced to retreat from Kyiv in March 2022. Five major cities still stand in the way of the conquest of Eastern Ukraine: Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka, Kostiantynivka, and Pokrovsk. But all of them are now less than 14 miles from Russian-held territory. Pokrovsk's city centre is just three miles from the trenches. Relentless Russian artillery has shredded what lies between. And among the twisted concrete, small teams like ours offer their colleagues on the front line valuable cover. Entering the bunker Andrii drops us at our destination, an unremarkable building with a basement acting as a hub for drone warfare. As we arrive, our driver picks up other soldiers rotating out, away from the heat of battle. Our team moves quickly, unloading backpacks and supplies, shaking hands with their comrades. Like substitutes in a football match, three go in as three come out. This happens every four days, if conditions allow. As we enter the bunker, Femida, a big, bald former police officer from Western Ukraine, sighs, finally safe underground. 'The dictator [Putin] bombs schools, kindergartens, hospitals... I don't get how anyone can seriously talk about negotiations," he says, referring to stalled peace talks in the gilded Ottoman halls of Istanbul. "It's like a thief breaking into your house, pointing a gun at your head and saying, 'Give me your money'. And when you finally get a weapon to defend yourself, he proposes, 'Well, let's split it fifty-fifty and call it peace'.' The building we are in has several floors. Above ground, there's ammunition and a table to prepare drones. Below, a small white-brick room with old cobwebs, three cots, two drones hanging on the wall, a shelf, a stove, 15 DJI drone batteries charging and a controller dangling from a cable. Our team's mission is to fly the Mavic quadcopters that have become so central to the defence of Ukraine. These tiny drones were once an oddity in this war; now they are the war. Today alone, they will send their drone up more than 16 times, despite the rain and wind. They monitor Russian movements and drop mines and grenades over the grey zone no-man's land to stall any advance. Jamal, with the AK-47, has a patch on his arm that reads: death from above. 'We're fairly safe down here,' says Femida, wiping sweat from his brow. 'But if a KAB (laser-guided bomb) hits, that's it. We'll end up under the rubble.' We hear the boom of rockets hitting nearby, but not on our position. 'They fire a lot of Grads (Soviet missiles) now to cover a wider area. But the truth is, they don't really know where we are,' says Bandera, 22, a father of two from the safe city of Lviv in the far West of the country.. The position is part of a flank holding back the Russian push westward. If this sector falls, the city could be encircled. Summer offensive Moscow is attempting a simple pincer – advancing from both the south and the north of Pokrovsk. It has forced Ukraine to bolster its troop numbers, pull elite reinforcements from Kursk, and split logistics under constant fire. While the most pessimistic analysis predicted both Pokrovsk and neighbouring Kostiantynivka would fall before 2025, the Ukrainian flag still flies. Russia's gains since 2023 have been limited, roughly one city of 70,000 inhabitants per year. That's enough to pin down Kyiv's forces while spreading fear through bombing and death across the country. But still not sufficient to fully control Eastern Ukraine. However, Russia's advance is now accelerating at its fastest rate for months, and villages are falling by the day – one reason why Putin is in no rush to accept a ceasefire. Before the full-scale invasion began, Russia already held 30-35 per cent of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Today, despite making it their primary objective for three years, they control about 85 per cent. As Russia's long-awaited summer offensive gets underway, the Kremlin will soon have to decide which part of the front to prioritise. In many ways, tactics have not changed. Men are sent to their deaths with wanton disregard to gain the smallest slivers of territory. Femida lays out the grim reality of the battlefield in our small corner of the war, asking that we look at a screen in front of him. 'To reach our positions, they first have to cross a kilometre of open ground. There's no other way in,' he says, reassuringly. 'They send one with a rifle and grenades. You kill him. Ten minutes later, another. You kill him. Then a third, a fourth... You kill them all. Losing people like that is stupid.' In different positions along the front, his comrades and soldiers from other Ukrainian units also operate FPV drones, 'Vampire' quadcopters, and fibre-optic cable drones, which have added yet another dimension to the war in the skies. Together, they form a silent force that watches, penetrates, and kills around the clock. Drones and their operators are so precise that many call them the snipers of modern warfare. Yet they are still not enough to stop Moscow's Soviet-style tactics of throwing endless bodies over the top. 'For the Russians, their own people are like barrels of oil,' says Femida. 'If they have to sell them, they sell them. If they need to get rid of them, they get rid of them.' Pinned down Jamal loads the ammunition into a drone's belly and shouts for Femida to take off. With the skies under relentless watch, launching and landing a drone is when these soldiers are most at risk of giving up their location. Between missions, Jamal, 26, a shy but good humoured carpenter also from Western Ukraine, charges batteries, cooks, scrolls through his phone, and smokes. He smokes a lot. Far more than he talks. As he puffs on a cigarette, Femida keeps piloting and Bandera snores. The three soldiers take shifts to keep the system running day and night, like an assembly line operating a well-oiled killing machine. 'Many Russians surrender, too. They know that if they're wounded, they'll be used as bait. They fear being killed by their own people,' Femida says, shaking his head. According to the independent Russian outlet Mediazona, more than 109,000 Russian soldiers have been confirmed dead, as of its latest update in May. But the real toll is believed to be far higher. Moscow sustains its war effort by offering large enlistment bonuses, turning to foreign recruits, and mobilising relentlessly. Russia brings in around 40,000 new soldiers each month, compared to 25,000 on the Ukrainian side, according to president Volodymyr Zelensky. Jamal crouches to retrieve the drone as it lands again, just back from dropping another explosive into the black soil of Donetsk. But the buzz of another drone outside stops him, this time a Russian one. 'F---, the b------s!' he shouts. We won't move from our basement for several hours now. The mission to move through the city is called off. Walking in Pokrovsk is no longer safe. The weather turns foul. Rain mixes with artillery fire. A little over 24 hours inside our position, the order finally comes. Femida puts on his vest and helmet. 'It's time to move out,' he says. Exit plan Instructions from the command are clear: transfer to the meeting point and wait. Any open building will be a good refuge to take cover and avoid detection. We find one and get inside. Orange lights spill through the door. Seconds later, the detonations begin. 'That's our artillery,' Femida says with a brief smile, which vanishes as the ground shakes. More Russian Grad rockets fall into Pokrovsk. Then, an aerial bomb. Femida starts to sweat again, and my eyes are drawn to the patch on his chest: 'This heart is protected by a loved one.' It's no empty phrase. He has a wife and two children. And heart problems, too. Minutes drag on, and the silence grows heavy. No one has come. As the first hour ticks, a question hangs in the air: should we stay or turn back? With no internet and the radio off for security, we are completely cut off. Seventy-two minutes later, the horn of a skidding car breaks the silence. That's the signal. We bolt outside, jumping into the pick-up. Another man, Yariy, is now at the wheel. He wears night-vision goggles and is ready to floor it. 90... 100... 110 miles per hour. The car bounces through puddles, the anti-drone system keeps beeping. Yariy drives without fear or delay through the empty streets. A burning house lights up the night once again. Helmets bang against the roof. When he finally switches on the headlights, he turns back and smiles like a tour guide: 'Did you like the city?' Laughter fills the car. Pokrovsk holds.
CTV News
3 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Ukraine and Russia end their latest round of direct peace talks in Istanbul
A Ukrainian army sniper changes his position facing Russian troops near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Libkos) ISTANBUL — ISTANBUL -- Delegations from Russia and Ukraine ended their latest peace talks Monday in Turkiye after just over an hour, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian state media said. Speaking in Vilnius, Lithuania, Zelenskyy said both sides 'exchanged documents through the Turkish side, and we are preparing a new release of prisoners of the war.' The two sides also agreed to swap 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action. Expectations were low for any breakthrough on ending the 3-year-old war after a string of stunning attacks over the weekend. Kyiv officials said a surprise drone attack Sunday damaged or destroyed more than 40 warplanes at air bases deep inside Russia, including the remote Arctic, Siberian and Far East regions more than 7,000 kilometres (4,300 miles) from Ukraine. The complex and unprecedented raid, which struck simultaneously in three time zones, took over a year and a half to prepare and was 'a major slap in the face for Russia's military power,' said Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the Ukrainian security service who led its planning. Zelenskyy called it a 'brilliant operation' that would go down in history. The operation destroyed or heavily damaged nearly a third of Moscow's strategic bomber fleet, according to Ukrainian officials. Russia on Sunday fired the biggest number of drones -- 472 -- at Ukraine since its full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine's air force said, in an apparent effort to overwhelm air defences. That was part of a recently escalating campaign of strikes in civilian areas of Ukraine. Hopes not high for the peace talks In Lithuania, Zelenskyy said a new release of prisoners of war was being prepared after the Istanbul meeting. The previous direct talks on May 16 also led to a swap of prisoners, with 1,000 on both sides being exchanged. Ukraine also handed Russia an official list of children it says were forcibly deported and must be returned, said Andriy Yermak, head of Zelenskyy's office. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had chaired the peace talks at Istanbul's Ciragan Palace, a residence dating from the Ottoman Empire. The talks aimed to discuss both sides' ceasefire terms, he said, adding that 'the whole world's eyes are focused on the contacts and discussions you will have here.' U.S.-led efforts to push the two sides into accepting a ceasefire have so far failed. Ukraine accepted that step, but the Kremlin effectively rejected it. The Ukrainian delegation was led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, while Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, headed the Kremlin team. The Russian and Ukrainian delegations, each numbering more than a dozen people, sat at a U-shaped table across from each other with Turkish officials between them. Many of the Ukrainians wore military fatigues. Recent comments by senior officials in both countries indicate they remain far apart on the key conditions for stopping the war. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Sunday that 'Russia is attempting to delay negotiations and prolong the war in order to make additional battlefield gains.' The relentless fighting has frustrated U.S. President Donald Trump's goal of bringing about a quick end to the war. A week ago, he expressed impatience with Putin as Moscow pounded Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles for a third straight night. Trump said on social media that Putin 'has gone absolutely CRAZY!' A round of renewed direct talks, held May 16, also in Istanbul, ended after less than two hours. While both sides agreed on a large prisoner swap, there was no breakthrough. Ukraine upbeat after strikes on air bases Ukraine was triumphant after targeting the distant Russian air bases. The official Russian response was muted, with the attack getting little coverage on state-controlled television. Russia-1 TV channel on Sunday evening spent a little over a minute on it with a brief Defence Ministry statement read out before images shifted to Russian drone strikes on Ukrainian positions. Zelenskyy said the setbacks for the Kremlin would help force it to the negotiating table, even as its pursues a summer offensive on the battlefield. 'Russia must feel what its losses mean. That is what will push it toward diplomacy,' he said Monday in Vilnius, Lithuania, meeting with leaders from the Nordic nations and countries on NATO's eastern flank. Ukraine has occasionally struck air bases hosting Russia's nuclear capable strategic bombers since early in the war, prompting Moscow to redeploy most of them to the regions farther from the front line. Because Sunday's drones were launched from trucks close to the bases in five Russian regions, military defences had virtually no time to prepare for them. Many Russian military bloggers chided the military for its failure to build protective shields for the bombers despite previous attacks, but the large size of the planes makes that challenging. The attacks were 'a big blow to Russian strategic airpower' and exposed significant vulnerabilities in Moscow's military capabilities, said Phillips O'Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Edward Lucas, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis, called it 'the most audacious attack of the war' and 'a military and strategic game-changer.' 'Battered, beleaguered, tired, and outnumbered, Ukrainians have, at minimal cost, in complete secrecy, and over vast distances, destroyed or damaged dozens, perhaps more, of Russia's strategic bombers,' he said. Front-line fighting and shelling grinds on Zelenskyy said that 'if the Istanbul meeting brings nothing, that clearly means strong new sanctions are urgently, urgently needed' against Russia. International concerns about the war's consequences, as well as trade tensions, drove Asian share prices lower Monday while oil prices surged. Fierce fighting has continued along the roughly 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) front line, and both sides have hit each other's territory with deep strikes. Russian forces shelled Ukraine's southern Kherson region, killing three people and injuring 19 others, including two children, regional officials said Monday. Also, a missile strike and shelling around the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, killing five people and injured nine others, officials said. Russian air defences downed 162 Ukrainian drones over eight Russian regions overnight, as well as over the Crimean Peninsula, Russia's Defence Ministry said Monday. Moscow illegally annexed the peninsula in 2014,Crimea, Ukrainian air defences damaged 52 out of 80 drones launched by Russia overnight, the Ukrainian air force said. ------ By Mehmet Guzel Associated Press writers Suzan Frazer in Ankara, Turkiye; Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.
CTV News
4 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Zelenskyy says Ukraine will send a delegation to Istanbul for talks with Russia on Monday
A Ukrainian army sniper changes his position facing Russian troops near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Libkos) KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine will send a delegation to Istanbul for a new round of direct peace talks with Russia on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. In a statement on Telegram, Zelenskyy said Sunday that Defense Minister Rustem Umerov will lead the Ukrainian delegation. 'We are doing everything to protect our independence, our state and our people,' Zelenskyy said. Ukrainian officials had previously called on the Kremlin to provide a promised memorandum setting out its position on ending the more than three-year war before the meeting takes place. Moscow had said it would share its memorandum during the talks. Russian strike hit an army unit Earlier Sunday, Ukraine's army said at least 12 Ukrainian service members were killed and more than 60 were injured in a Russian missile strike on an army training unit. The strike occurred at 12:50 p.m. (0950 GMT), the statement said, emphasizing that no formations or mass gatherings of personnel were being held at the time. An investigative commission was created to uncover the circumstances around the attack that led to such a loss in personnel, the statement said. The training unit is located to the rear of the 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) active front line, where Russian reconnaissance and strike drones are able to strike. Ukraine's forces suffer from manpower shortages and take extra precautions to avoid mass gatherings as the skies across the front line are saturated with Russian drones looking for targets. 'If it is established that the actions or inaction of officials led to the death or injury of servicemen, those responsible will be held strictly accountable,' the Ukrainian Ground Forces' statement said. Meanwhile, Ukrainian drone strikes were reported deep in Russian territory Sunday, including in the Siberian region of Irkutsk, more than 4,500 kilometres (2,800 miles) east of Moscow. It is the first time that a Ukrainian drone has been seen in the region, local Gov. Igor Kobzeva said, stressing that it did not present a threat to civilians. Other drone strikes were also reported in Russia's Ryazan region and the Arctic Murmansk region. No casualties were reported. Northern pressure Russia's Ministry of Defense said Sunday that it had taken control of the village of Oleksiivka in Ukraine's northern Sumy region. Ukrainian authorities in Sumy ordered mandatory evacuations in 11 more settlements Saturday as Russian forces make steady gains in the area. Speaking Saturday, Ukraine's top army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Russian forces were focusing their main offensive efforts on Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Lyman in the Donetsk region, as well as the Sumy border area. Samya Kullab, The Associated Press
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia pushes forward in Donetsk Oblast, threatening Ukrainian pocket around Toretsk
Russian troops have upped the intensity of their Donetsk Oblast offensive in recent weeks, increasingly pressuring a relatively large Ukrainian pocket between some of the last cities in the region. An unsettling situation for Ukrainian troops is now unfolding south of the town of Kostiantynivka, which has long served as a relatively safe logistics hub for Ukrainian troops defending the areas around the now Russian-occupied Bakhmut. Russian troops have been pushing toward Kostiantynivka from two directions, slowly closing in on the Ukrainian pocket west of Toretsk. Western military experts say that Russia appears to have the resources to keep "creeping" forward, and the question is how much and for how long the Ukrainian forces deployed in the area can hold on. "The problem is this large bulge between Kostiantynivka and Pokrovsk has been growing relatively fast," Emil Kastehelmi, an analyst at the Finland-based Black Bird Group monitoring the war closely through open sources, told the Kyiv Independent. Read also: Why Washington failed to end the Russo-Ukrainian War "If it grows at this rate, the Russians will be threatening the supply routes into Kostiantynivka in a couple of months already." Concerns rise over the potential Russian encirclement of Ukrainian troops defending the Toretsk and Kostiantynivka area, according to Kastehelmi. Russia has held the initiative on the battlefield in the Donetsk Oblast since the fall of 2023, after Ukraine's failed summer counteroffensive. The recent Russian push comes as the U.S. continues to insist on peace talks between Russia and Ukraine to end the war at all costs. U.S. President Donald Trump and his team have made numerous threats that Washington could walk away from the peace process if there is no progress made in the near future, putting U.S. military support and intelligence sharing with Ukraine on the line. The experts who spoke to the Kyiv Independent said that the current Russian push in Donetsk Oblast is setting the stage for a major upcoming offensive. "I think that this is a development that will continue to be a growing issue for Ukraine during the summer because, as far as I know, the Russians should have relatively large reserves that they can commit to the battle in the coming weeks and months," Kastehelmi said. Ukraine had largely stabilized the situation on the eastern front earlier this year after Russia ramped up the offensive tempo in the summer of 2024, likely taking advantage of multiple elite Ukrainian units being deployed to Russia's Kursk Oblast for a surprise cross-border incursion. One such unit, the 80th Air Assault Brigade, had manned the defense near Klishchiivka, a village south of Chasiv Yar and north of Toretsk that Ukraine liberated in 2023. "Whilst the offensive is still underway, they're probably building momentum for higher tempo and more intense offensive operations in the coming months." Factors such as Ukraine's manpower shortage and the combat capabilities of the Ukrainian units deployed in the area would dictate how Ukrainian troops will hold onto the pocket south of Kostiantynivka, according to Kastehelmi. The lack of well-trained troops remains the army's weakest spot, with Ukraine struggling to recruit new soldiers and train them to prepare for the brutal reality of the war, experts and officers say. Ukrainian monitoring group DeepState said in April that Russian troops were preparing to advance in an area southwest of Toretsk by solidifying their presence in the village of Kalynove down south. The question hangs over the combat capabilities of the Ukrainian units deployed in the area, as reinforcing the area with units that aren't battered after fighting in hot spots of the war, such as Kursk Oblast, would be a challenge, according to Kastehelmi. "The Ukrainians need to make some difficult decisions on what directions they can prioritize and what reserves they can commit," the expert said. Retired Australian Army Major-General Mick Ryan, who has closely observed the war in Ukraine, said that even if Ukraine were to lose the pocket south of Kostiantynivka, he doesn't believe that it would bring "any significant shift in the trajectory of the war at this point." While it is still "a significant bit of territory," the more pressing concern is for Russia not to gain momentum after potentially conquering it, according to Ryan. "The last thing you want is for the Russians to become more confident and think they can generate additional momentum because they take this area," Ryan told the Kyiv Independent. The Australian expert said that Russia is adapting its tactics on the front line, for example, increasingly using fiber optic and first-person-view (FPV) drones, enabling Russian troops to achieve better results. "Whilst the offensive is still underway, they're probably building momentum for higher tempo and more intense offensive operations in the coming months," Ryan said. For now, the question is whether Ukraine would make the timely decision to withdraw from the pocket, rather than holding onto unfavorable positions at a heavy cost, according to Kastehelmi from the Black Bird Group. Ukrainian soldiers who spoke to the Kyiv Independent often criticized their command to "hold until the end," even if the positions would soon be overrun by Russian troops and the Ukrainians would be left without proper evacuation or orderly withdrawal. "This summer and the next fall will look really difficult," Kastehelmi said. Read also: 'It's okay, Mom, I'm home' —Ukraine, Russia hold largest prisoner swap of the war We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Yahoo
As Russia's fiber optic drones flood the battlefield, Ukraine is racing to catch up
Editor's Note: In accordance with the security protocols of the Ukrainian military, soldiers featured in this story are identified by first names and callsigns only. Every year, as the way war is fought constantly evolves on the battlefields of Ukraine, the visuals of the fighting on the ground that constantly flood the internet transform with it. In the frantic first weeks of the full-scale invasion, it was Russian tanks stolen by farmers tossing their turrets after Ukrainian Javelin strikes. Over the Battle of Bakhmut, we got used to images of brutal World War I-style trench warfare in the 21st century. 2024 was undoubtedly the year of the first-person-view (FPV) drones, with their characteristic screech through the air and messy static picture often capturing the last moments of a soldier's life. In 2025, something new has arrived. Images of kilometers-long tunnels of netting erected over entire roads, of city streets and fields covered in a dense tangle of glistening thread, and of the same FPV drone strike footage, but now with perfect camera quality. This year's new arrivals on the visual fabric of the battlefield have one thing in common: they are all connected with the weapon shaping entire operations: the fiber optic FPV drone. In a war defined by constant innovation, this deceptively simple tweak to standard FPV drones makes them immune to electronic warfare (EW) and free of limitations brought by radio horizon. The drones have already made a serious impact — from their role in Russia's recapture of Kursk Oblast to the devastation of logistics all across the front line. What's more: unlike many of the full-scale war's most effective innovations, fiber optic drones were first introduced not by pioneering Ukrainian drone teams, but by Russian forces. At its core, a fiber optic drone of the kind used in Ukraine is simply a modification of the standard FPV drone that has already once transformed the way war is fought. Usually, this means a quadcopter design on a carbon fiber, aluminum, or polymer frame, upon which electronics are welded on in the middle, a battery is strapped to the top, and — right before flying out on a combat mission — the munition is strapped to the bottom. The difference is in the communication between the drone and its pilot. Most FPV drones receive their control inputs and beam back video through standard analog or digital antennas, meaning that maintaining a decent signal connection, even at great distances, is crucial for reaching and engaging targets. To achieve this, vertical antennas on the drone position are often complemented by signal booster drones, allowing the FPV to fly further, although still limited by the radio horizon of the terrain. Then there is jamming: EW devices of all shapes and sizes, from smaller systems mounted on vehicles to protect them from FPVs, to larger, more powerful units that can deny a whole area at a distance. When flying on fiber optic, the drone pilot is not concerned by questions of radio horizon or electronic warfare, and — so long as the fiber itself isn't damaged or broken mid-flight — can count on a perfect video feed right up to the target. Often, FPV drones on both sides are jammed by friendly as well as enemy EW, as many different teams from different units work out of the same sector without coordinating who is switching on their EW when. Fiber optic drones remove all of these problems from the equation, and for that reason, have been game-changing. Hanging under the drone, usually between the frame and the munition, a large but fairly lightweight cylinder holds a long spool of lightweight optical fiber which gradually releases as the drone flies forward. Essentially, this makes the drone a wire-guided precision weapon, like the Cold-War era TOW anti-tank missiles developed by the United States. When flying on fiber optic, the drone pilot is not concerned by questions of radio horizon or electronic warfare, and — so long as the fiber itself isn't damaged or broken mid-flight — can count on a perfect video feed right up to the target. Over 2024 especially, both Ukraine and Russia invested heavily in expensive EW systems to protect vehicles and other high-value targets, but against these new drones, they are rendered useless. Likewise, the same goes for radio-based drone detector devices commonly used by units to warn them of FPVs flying in the area. As has been demonstrated by both sides on the battlefield, fiber optic also allows FPV drones to fly where they never could before. 'They're really great when you need to fly into some kind of building, like a large shed or hangar, to have a look inside if there is something there with the ability to strike it straight away,' said Oleksandr 'Skhid,' an FPV drone team commander in Ukraine's Achilles Strike Drone Regiment. 'The same goes for other types of cover, and flying in forested areas.' The drone design is not without its downsides. The weight and bulk of the fiber optic spool means that a larger drone frame with more powerful motors and a larger battery is needed, creating a final airframe that is slower, less maneuverable, and easier to shoot down with small arms than standard FPV drones. The hard connection between pilot and drone also leaves a physical trail of fiber after every flight, which, once they start to accumulate, can become visible. 'The fiber is very reflective in the sunlight, and it makes it possible to find the place where you fly out of,' said Skhid. 'That's why it's better to switch positions more often.' Read also: 'He's mine' – How Ukraine's ace drone unit hunts Russian soldiers near Kupiansk In the cat-and-mouse technological game of the full-scale war, it is often Ukraine that has held the reputation of being better innovators, with more motivated engineers and volunteers allowed to work in a more flexible environment. Often, if a new Ukrainian product or solution proves to be effective on the battlefield — like the early use of the basic FPV drone — Russia tends to copy it and ramp up production. But with fiber optic drones, Russia was first, and the story of how it happened challenges perceptions of Russia's war machine as being a lumbering, inert organization. 'Beginning with 2023, many key Russian military commentators, bloggers and military personalities were calling for the Russians not just to match Ukrainian (drone) capabilities step for step, but to essentially achieve a breakthrough,' said military analyst Samuel Bendett, who has closely followed the efforts of grassroots Russian innovators and volunteer efforts over the full-scale war. At the time, both sides were increasingly looking to artificial intelligence as a solution to the jamming problem, with both solutions like AI-powered target recognition and pixel-locking that allow a drone to fly the last leg of its journey to the target. Ultimately though, with autonomous targeting often less reliable than a capable pilot and needing more expensive hardware on the drone itself, Russian drone engineers looked to think outside the box, arriving at the idea of the fiber optic drone. The first fiber optic drone model deployed at scale to the front line was the Knyaz Vandal Novgorodsky, a product of the Ushkuinik military technology accelerator project founded by Russian political scientist-turned volunteer Aleksey Chadaev. First deployed in Kursk Oblast in August 2024 and scaled up as attempts to expel the Ukrainian presence inside Russian territory accelerated, the drone quickly proved to be extremely effective, particularly at targeting already strained Ukrainian logistics routes across the state border. By late winter, when Russian assaults on the Kursk salient intensified, soldiers reported that fiber optic drones played a crucial role in making the Ukrainian presence in the salient untenable. "Our logistics just collapsed; fiber optic drones were monitoring all routes, leaving no way to deliver ammunition or provisions,' said Dmytro, a Ukrainian medic fighting out of the Russian town of Sudzha at the time, to the Kyiv Independent. 'Traveling there was even worse than playing Russian roulette — because in this case, the revolver has five bullets and only one empty chamber." Now, top Russian drone units, including Rubicon and Sudny Den ('Judgement Day'), with their extensive experience of using fiber optic drones in Kursk Oblast, have transferred to Donetsk Oblast, according to the units' Telegram channels. There, they have quickly begun to boost Russian offensive efforts in the area, especially around the front-line hotspots of Pokrovsk and Toretsk. Speaking to the Kyiv Independent on condition of anonymity, Ukrainian soldiers from two different brigades fighting near Toretsk reported a sharp increase in vehicle casualty rates after more fiber optic drones started flying in the area, with one saying that the whole brigade had run out of medical evacuation vehicles in the space of a month. With the technology continuing to be refined, and longer spools being fitted to larger drones on both sides, important logistical hubs could come under threat, even without the front line itself getting much April, Russian fiber optic drones began to fly into the city of Kostiantynivka, a central logistical node north of Toretsk and just over 10 kilometers from the contact line, with videos posted of both military and civilian vehicles hit. In a nondescript village house in Donetsk Oblast, a young military engineer with the call-sign 'Barbara' screws propellers onto a quadcopter drone. On his desk, alongside the typical markers of drone-making equipment — 3D printers, soldering irons, wires, and zip-ties — are a row of large fiber optic spools. This humble workshop is where the legendary Azov Brigade of Ukraine's National Guard, recently promoted to corps level, prepares its new fiber optic drones. Seeing the importance of the technology, Azov, along with many of Ukraine's more specialized drone units, has been quicker out of the gate to experiment with and adopt fiber optic drones. Like with any other drone technology, the unit works in tight cooperation with Ukrainian manufacturers, tightening the feedback loop from factory to front line. 'These types of drones have proven themselves in combat, they've proven their effectiveness, and the Russians are basically saying that this is something they should invest in.' With Ukraine's FPV drone production already well-developed at scale, the ability to pivot to more production of fiber optic simply requires a stable access to quality cable, most of which comes from China. In Ukraine, ready-made fiber optic spools are available for purchase on online marketplace AliExpress, though, as with all drone parts, manufacturers are looking to move away from dependence on China due to the country's warm relations with the Kremlin. "Previously, it was mostly just Chinese spools,' he said. 'Now, our manufacturers have started to take action and quite successfully. Perhaps, they lost a bit of time, but now all capacities are being ramped up." In late February, Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces unveiled the Silkworm, a domestically-made fiber modular optic spool that can be used both on FPV drones and unmanned ground vehicles, which also often suffer from comms difficulties on the battlefield. As Ukrainian production gets into gear, the rapid training of pilots and the establishment of best practices are their own challenges. Receiving their first fiber optic drones toward the end of the winter, Skhid's team has continued to fly mostly on standard FPV drones, turning to fiber optic only when absolutely necessary. 'We haven't completely figured out fiber optic yet,' said Skhid. 'We have several different manufacturers, we are testing them continuously, we don't have a simple workflow.' "Right now, I wouldn't say that quantity is the most important thing,' added Barbara. 'We need quality, and it's more important that everyone who deals with fiber optic understands what to do with it and how to handle it." So far, the successful use of fiber optic among Ukrainian forces is limited to the top tier of well-equipped, professional drone units, like the Achilles regiment or Azov's native drone battalion. 'This (2025) will be the year of fiber optic,' said Kyrylo Veres, a prominent Ukrainian officer and commander of K-2, another one of the military's top drone regiments, in an interview with Ukrainian media in March. 'But at the moment, it's being used effectively by about one in 10 Ukrainian drone units. When we reach a point where nine out of 10 are using it, and the rest are quickly catching up, then we will see some serious results.' In the meantime, Russia's current advantage in the use of fiber optic — right as offensive efforts are gaining momentum across the front line with the approach of summer — is proving to be a serious challenge for the Ukrainian defense. 'It was a raw, unproven technology, but it has since expanded and everyone now recognizes this advantage,' said Bendett. 'These types of drones have proven themselves in combat, they've proven their effectiveness, and the Russians are basically saying that this is something they should invest in.' Countermeasures to fiber optic drones are so far limited to physical shooting down, entanglement, or obstruction. Along key logistics routes in the deadliest zone of the front line, both sides have been seen setting up long tunnels of lightweight netting for protection from the aerial threat, although videos have also emerged of Russian fiber optic drones simply flying underneath the nets to hit Ukrainian vehicles. As fiber optic drones are fitted with larger and larger spools, they consistently fly further than most standard FPVs. The long-term consequences for front-line logistics look to be transformative to the way war is fought, in the same way that drones first made the immediate zero line much deadlier than at the outset of the full-scale invasion. 'At the moment, most of our spools are 10 kilometers long, a few are 15 kilometeкs long, and the 20-kilometer spools are still being tested,' said Skhid.'I can't wait to try some of the longer-range spools, it will really increase our ability to find all kinds of Russian equipment in buildings further in the rear.' Hi, this is Francis Farrell, thanks for reading this article on what could be one of the most understated yet terrifying new weapons of this war. I don't really know what we are going to do about fiber optic drones, they are making everything more dangerous near the front line, including both soldiers' and our work. I have a feeling that in the near future, stumbling through spider webs of optical fiber will become a normal part of front-line work. But as with everything, as with this war, we will keep doing what we do because we have no other choice. If you want to stand there with us, without creeping through fiber optic yourself, please consider becoming a member of the Kyiv Independent. To fund our reporting, we rely on our community of over 18,000 members from around the world, most of whom give just $5 a month. We're aiming to reach 20,000 soon — join our community and help us reach this goal. We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
