The Ukrainian soldiers got up in the Predawn, stretching, rubbing their eyes and rolling out of sleeping bags in a hiding place in the basement near the first -line line in the east of the country. Their day would not bring them very far away. Most remained in the basement, working with keyboards and joystick that control the drones.
At a precarious moment for Ukraine, while the country falters among the hopes that the interviews of ceased the fire of President Trump end the war and the fears that the United States withdraw military support, the soldiers were taking part in an initiative of the Ukrainian army that Kiev hopes that they will allow him to remain in American combat weapons.
On Sunday, after a week of war relentlessly in Ukraine, including the most fatal attack in Kiev, the capital, in almost a year, the Trump administration has issued signals somehow contrasting on what would have arrived later. President Trump had a brief meeting with the president Volodymyr Zelensky from Ukraine during the weekend in which Trump said he went well, and in the following comments he did not exclude the sending of more weapons. But the secretary of state Marco Rubio warned that the United States were close to the announcement from the peace table and said that next week it would be “very important”.
If the peace interviews fail or the United States decides to interrupt the shipments of weapons, it is likely that the Ukrainian drones initiative would take more importance than ever. The program, called the drone line, doubles the pilot -united systems assembled in Ukraine, for the smallest drones that explode from the basement shelters.
The program is a reminder, once again, of Ukraine's ability to innovate during this war, which helped him face his much bigger enemy.
“He is no longer the man against man,” said the commander of the team that operates from the basement in Eastern Ukraine.
The group flies firsthand, which give the pilot the equivalent video of a front row seat while the bombs go down in Russian soldiers, cars, tanks or bunkers. In line with the military protocol, the commander asked to be identified only with his name and his rank, private Artem.
Even before Droni's scheduled program, Ukraine was strongly based on pilot -free weapons, which now inflict about 70 percent of all the victims in the war on both sides, says the Ukrainian military – more than all other combined weapons, including tanks, obice, mortars and land mines. While those other weapons are partly provided by the United States, the Ukrainians bring together the drones at national level by mostly made components in China.
The expanded droni program, in works since last autumn, but formally announced in February, is Kiev's plan B if the talks to end the war, which started with the invasion on the vast scale of Russia in 2022, fails.
The drones of both sides already buzz almost on the battlefield. In the war of drones, Russia has an advantage in quantity, while Ukraine has an advantage in quality, often becoming a first adopter of new technological approaches. These include drones of flying retransmitter to extend the range of explosive drones and drive the drones with thin optic optic threads that are waterproof to the cap.
The drone strategy line was obscured by the interviews of ceased the fire and by the contemptuous evaluation of Mr. Trump on the possibilities of Ukraine without US aid. (“You don't have cards,” Signor Zelensky told a controversial meeting of the oval office). But the distribution of drones has already produced results, according to military analysts.
It was partially accredited for a three -month slowdown in the Russian offensive in Ukraine. The Russian forces that increased last autumn were in a virtual stable since January, despite the expensive assaults of the Russian army.
The Russian offensive reached the peak in November with the capture that month of 279 square miles of Ukrainian territory, according to Deepstate, an analytical group with links with the Ukrainian military. In March, Russia captured only 51 square miles, showed the group's analysis. Russia's main gain during the winter was expelling Ukraine from everyone, or almost all of the Kursk region within Russia.
The Ukrainian program will compile four battalions of drones to become drones regiments, each expanding from about 700 soldiers to 2,500 soldiers armed with first -person drones, others that drop bombs and land systems without pilot. The last includes remote control vehicles armed by machine guns.
All wars stimulate innovation, from the invention of radar during the Second World War to night vision glasses in Vietnam. But also the strategy of Ukrainian drones was born from a key weakness of its military after more than three years of war: the bad motivation of the Ukrainians to join the army. Since the evasion project has become widespread, the refueling of strength has become a challenge.
Drones do not replace soldiers; In fact, each flight of a first -person drone can request up to four soldiers. For flights last week in the north -est of Ukraine, a team of drones consisted of a pilot, a navigator, a armor and a pilot of a retransmission drone.
But the recruitment for these positions is easier than finding soldiers for the infantry that will serve in the trenches.
With less soldiers to lose compared to Russia, Ukraine wants to limit direct commitments. That's where the drones enter.
The strategy focuses on a land of land about 18 miles behind the first line of Russia. Knowing the aerial space on this area with reconnaissance and attack drones can prevent Russian soldiers from immersing for assaults. Drones, flying about 80 miles per hour, can overcome everything that moves on the ground.
“The fair evaluation is that it works,” said Michael Kofman, a senior member of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, of the drone program. The lack of Russian equipment and the winter climate also played a role, he said.
The goal, said Kofman, was to design a force that “can block a large part of the front” and support themselves without us help. Ukraine, however, is still deeply dependent on the United States and the European nations for air defense systems to defend the cities from missiles far from the first line.
The goal of the program is to expand over time, with drivers of expert drones who share skills with soldiers in other units, in an attempt to complicate Russian logistics, air defense and electronic war operations behind the first line, said Yuriy Fedorenko, commander of the Achille regiment. “The idea is to cover the entire first line” with drones, he said.
The Ukrainian army took a test last year when the Republicans at the congress blocked an additional expenditure account for Ukraine. The artillery ammunition went so low that some crews shot only smoke. In a section of the front, near the city of Chasiv Yar, the crews of the drones have compensated for a burst of attacks that interrupted the Russian offensive.
Drones cost from $ 500 to $ 750 each, less than the great -caliber artillery shells, which cost about $ 3,000.
Other soldiers are taking note. The body of the Marines of the United States this year has formed its first experimental drones of drones of drones in the first person.
Private Artem is serving with Achille Regiment, one of the units recently expanded as part of the drone program. Like a fifth of all the recruits to the regiment, it is an ex -computer programmer who worked in the underlying industry of Ukraine before the Russian invasion.
Although they operate on the roof about three miles back from the first line, the crews of the drones are not spared neither the barbarism of war nor the danger.
On Friday, the Ukrainian crew captured an outdoor Russian soldier, falling on the green grass of an alluvial plain of the Oskil river. He was running for security in a trees grove. But the final frame of the Feed Video showed a close -up of a camouflage, suggesting that he did not make it.
Later during the day, the Ukrainian soldiers who put the drones outdoors for the launch remained out of the view while a Russian drone buzzed up before accelerating and crashing nearby with a thunderous boom.
Yurii Syvala Reports contributed by Kharkiv, Ukraine.