ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION, Ukraine — Beneath the quilt of darkness, leaning ahead underneath the load of packs and rifles, a squad of troopers walked alongside a muddy lane and slipped right into a village home.
They had been Ukrainian squaddies 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,” mentioned 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 many 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 powerful assault throughout the Dnipro River.
However the preventing has not eased and Russian forces at the moment are 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 every day. Ukrainian troops attempt to counterattack instantly in the event that they lose floor, commanders mentioned.
“It’s one thing like a sport of Ping-Pong,” mentioned 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 mentioned.
Certainly, Ukrainian troopers and commanders interviewed in current weeks alongside a broad stretch of the central and jap entrance mentioned that Russian assaults had 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 huge 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 jap entrance.
Properly accustomed to Russian artillery fireplace, troopers mentioned that since March that they had suffered the extra devastating energy of glide bombs, half-ton explosives unleashed from planes that smash by way of underground bunkers.
“They might ship them two by two by two, eight in an hour,” mentioned a 27-year-old soldier referred to as Equipment, of the 14th Chervona Kalyna Nationwide Guard Brigade. Like others interviewed, Equipment recognized himself by his name signal, in accordance with navy protocol. “It feels like a jet coming down on you,” he mentioned, “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 middle 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 driving a bicycle by way of the city. He mentioned he had stayed regardless of the heavy bombardment as a result of he had paid work, fixing turbines. He lived off humanitarian help and was feeding 20 stray cats at his residence, he mentioned.
Troopers moved cautiously within the space, principally dwelling 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 pressured Ukrainian troopers largely to desert automobiles in frontline areas and function on foot.
An inexpensive business drone, the F.P.V. — for first particular person view — has change into the most recent weapon of the second within the Ukrainian warfare. It will 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 minimize out the delay of relaying again coordinates and requesting artillery strikes. Ukrainian troopers mentioned they usually use the drones as a substitute of artillery as a result of shells had been more and more briefly provide and the drones are an affordable, fast weapon for assaults on close by Russian automobiles, bunkers and infantry.
Army items from either side publish movies on-line of their profitable strikes, which finish with a scrambled black display screen in the intervening time of detonation. A number of Ukrainian drone items allowed journalists from The New York Instances to observe 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 mentioned.
For these on the receiving finish of F.P.V. drones, defending and supplying the entrance line have change into more and more dangerous.
“This can be very harmful to go by automotive,” mentioned a Ukrainian Nationwide Guardsman, who makes use of the decision signal Varvar. Males of his unit mentioned that since September that they had been leaving their armored automobiles and strolling in six miles to positions. “You may solely go in on foot,” Varvar mentioned.
The lads of the 117th Brigade, who had been deploying to the entrance line within the Zaporizhzhia area on a current evening, confronted a four-mile hike by way of rain and dust, the intelligence commander mentioned. In the event that they had 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 cause Ukraine couldn’t maintain its counteroffensive, an organization commander, Adolf, 23, mentioned.
Ambulances and provide automobiles got here underneath fireplace from kamikaze drones so usually 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 underneath some bushes beside his command publish 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 had been the primary to begin 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 mentioned.
“My impression is Russia is excited by drones on the state stage,” the soldier referred to as Equipment mentioned, however in distinction, Ukraine nonetheless largely relied on volunteers and civilian donors for its drone program. “My sense,” he mentioned, “is the federal government needs to be doing extra.”
The Russians had been using subterfuge as properly, Planshet mentioned, enjoying tapes of gunfire on drones to make Ukrainian troopers suppose they had been underneath assault, depart the bunkers and reveal their positions.
Some members of his platoon mentioned the Russians used drones to drop smoke grenades into their trenches. One soldier, who makes use of the decision signal Medic, mentioned it appeared like a type of tear fuel.
“It causes a really robust ache within the eyes and a fireplace, like a bit of coal, in your throat and you can’t breathe,” he mentioned.
A number of troopers donned fuel masks to deal with the lads affected, however when two males within the platoon crawled from the bunker to flee the fuel, they had been killed by grenades dropped from Russian drones hovering above, troopers mentioned.
The toll is heavy for all items alongside the entrance. Virtually everybody has been wounded or survived a slender escape in current months, troopers mentioned.
“We’re in need of individuals,” mentioned an intelligence commander of the 117th Brigade who makes use of the decision signal Banderas, after the actor. “Now we have 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 Instances journalists alongside.
The groups work underground, in bunkers lined with tree trunks and coated 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 mentioned over a walkie-talkie. “Is every thing prepared?” the main requested the drone crew. “A tank is a cool goal to destroy; let’s assist our brothers.”
Mice scurried by way of their bunker, rustling in a garbage bag, because the newly deployed crew, 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 had been too gradual, and their first two flights crashed, downed by Russian digital jamming.
However the main was glad. “We’re growing,” he mentioned.
Olha Konovalova contributed reporting from the Zaporizhzhia area, and Christiaan Triebert from Auriac-du-Périgord, France.
