Ukraine's Drone Targeting Is Preventing Russians Troops Even Reaching the Front

Ukraine's increasingly effective use of drones to identify, target and destroy Russian logistics, armor and troop formations has so frustrated Russian army leadership that they can no longer count on troops even getting to the front. 

The result is a battlefield stalemate at a time when Russia enjoys superiority in troop strength, artillery, missiles and armored vehicles. JL 

Tom Porter reports in Business Insider:

Ukraine's targeting of Russian troops and armored vehicles is credited with "preventing Russian forces from even reaching Ukrainian forward defensive lines." Ukraine has excelled in the use of cheap hobby drones on the battlefield, using them to surveil Russian positions and fitting them with explosives. Russian forces were "unable to concentrate in numbers sufficient to break through Ukrainian lines because Ukrainian forces strike all force concentrations larger than a battalion. The more abundant, smaller drones are proving to be serious game changers in that they have given Ukraine better battlespace awareness and more capability to hit targets,"

Russia has been struggling to break through Ukraine's defensive lines, and a new report contains one detail that may help explain why: Whenever Russian troops gather to attack, they're said to be targeted by Ukrainian drones.

The report, compiled by the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, included commentary from an influential Russian military blogger, who was discussing Russian forces' struggle to break out of the current stalemate in Ukraine.

The ISW paraphrased the source as saying on Tuesday that Russian forces were "unable to concentrate in numbers sufficient to break through Ukrainian lines because Ukrainian forces strike all force concentrations larger than a battalion."

It further quoted the blogger as saying that even forces gathering far behind the front line had been vulnerable to attack.

 

The report said the blogger had credited Ukraine's targeting of Russian troops and armored vehicles with "preventing Russian forces from even reaching Ukrainian forward defensive lines."

Ukraine is on the back foot and is running low on ammunition, with large aid packages blocked by Republicans in the US Congress and by Hungary in the European Union.

Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukrainian positions in areas including Bakhmut and Avdiivka as it seeks to take advantage of the situation and break the stalemate.

But drones have changed the nature of warfare in Ukraine, preventing large numbers of troops from gathering and taking the enemy by surprise.

 

Ukraine has excelled in the use of cheap hobby drones on the battlefield, using them to surveil Russian positions and fitting them with explosives.

"The more abundant, smaller drones are proving to be serious game changers in that they have given Ukraine better battlespace awareness and more capability to hit targets," the European Council for Foreign Relations said in a recent study.

A US military expert told Business Insider last year that Ukraine had suffered a similar problem when it gathered large units during its summer counteroffensive, with drones allowing Russia to surveil and target them.

In a bid to break the stalemate, Russia has resorted to so-called "meat grinder" assaults, in which large numbers of troops suffer steep casualties as they attempt head-on attacks on Ukrainian positions.