Two Ukrainian soldiers huddle around a drone controller in darkness, their faces illuminated only by its screen. <\/p>\n
\u201cOh, something is burning,\u201d one says. They\u2019ve just dropped a bomb on a Russian target. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be hitting their first line and our guys will be advancing on the enemy,\u201d says one of the drone pilots, who goes by his call sign \u201cGroove.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ukrainian ground troops are equipped with Western night-vision equipment and have an advantage in night-time operations, but Kyiv\u2019s ground attack aircraft are not suited for the dark, so this drone unit nicknamed \u201cCode 9.2\u201d is stepping up. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe drones see in the night like in daylight,\u201d \u2018Groove explains. \u201cWe see the infantry, we hit the vehicles, cannons, everything we need to destroy.\u201d <\/p>\n
They are using Ukrainian-made \u2018Vampire\u2019 unmanned aerial vehicles, a hexacopter procured by the government in Kyiv, part of an initiative led by the Ministry for Digital Transformation to supply Ukrainian forces with technology on the battlefield. <\/p>\n
\u201cEach drone is equipped with a thermal imager, so it can operate effectively at night. They can carry up to 15 kilograms [33 pounds] of payload,\u201d Ukraine\u2019s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov said in a Telegram video last August, as he announced 270 of these machines would be sent to the front lines. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe military will use them to destroy both armored cars and tanks, as well as enemy defense structures, fortifications, or ammunition depots.\u201d <\/p>\n
That\u2019s what Groove and his unit have been doing. <\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes there are a lot of them,\u201d Groove says, searching the area with his drone, trying to scope out Russian forces. They chase a few Russian vehicles, dropping bombs on them as they go. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment we don\u2019t see many. There was some vehicle there but we didn\u2019t hit it,\u201d he adds. <\/p>\n
As the drone attack picks up pace, other units join the battlefield: powerful artillery makes itself heard, showering the moonlit Russian positions with US-donated cluster munitions at a fast pace. <\/p>\n
Grad multiple launch rocket systems fill the sky with their rapid hissing projectiles, mortar units join in, zeroing in on Moscow\u2019s armies with the help of flares, and infantry fighting vehicles race to the front to storm Russian lines. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a comprehensive assault and, at their headquarters, Code 9.2 commander call sign \u2018Flint\u2019 says this operation has been weeks in the making. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been setting it up for more than a month\u201d he says, as his men prepare the ammunition they will be dropping on Russian positions. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a combined assault,\u201d he adds, explaining the push south of Bakhmut is designed to build up on recent gains in the area, where Ukraine was able to regain important territory from Russian control. <\/p>\n
Kyiv has concentrated a large portion of the Western equipment it received in the South where Ukrainian forces have been advancing along two axes: from Orikhiv towards Melitopol and from Velyka Novosilka towards Berdiansk. <\/p>\n
German-made Leopard 2 tanks, American Bradley infantry fighting vehicles among others were sent to the area to support Ukrainian forces as they stormed Russian positions. The ultimate goal is to reach the Black Sea and cut off Russia\u2019s supply route to Crimea. Gains so far have been slow and modest, with Ukraine retaking only a few small villages in the South. <\/p>\n
Much less talked about have been operations in the Eastern part of the country, where Kyiv\u2019s forces have slowly but surely retaken dozens of square kilometers, since Russia\u2019s brutal assault on Bakhmut last winter. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are breaking through their line of defense here and we are hitting them well,\u201d Groove says. He says the Russian mercenary group Wagner, responsible for much of Russia\u2019s gains during the winter, has returned to the area. <\/p>\n
\u201cYes, Wagner is here too,\u201d he says. \u201cThey came back, they swiftly changed their commanders and returned here.\u201d <\/p>\n
Groove believes that the group\u2019s presence is in part intended to compensate for personnel shortages on the Russian side. \u201c[Russia] gathered troops from surrounding areas and brought them here,\u201d he says. \u201cThey don\u2019t have much personnel left here.\u201d <\/p>\n
Nevertheless, it is a slow grind \u2013 a war of attrition \u2013 and with less of the advanced Western equipment than their countrymen on the Southern frontline, Ukrainian forces here are forced to rely more on brains than brawn. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe change tactics constantly,\u201d commander \u2018Flint\u2019 explains. \u201cIt\u2019s like boxing. We go for the body and then switch for the head.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
Two Ukrainian soldiers huddle around a drone controller in darkness, their faces illuminated only by its screen. \u201cOh, something is burning,\u201d one says. They\u2019ve just dropped a bomb on a Russian target. \u201cWe will be hitting their first line and our guys will be advancing on the enemy,\u201d says one of the drone pilots, who <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9246,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}