{"id":58729,"date":"2024-05-25T11:11:55","date_gmt":"2024-05-25T11:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/25\/drones-have-offered-last-line-of-defense-for-a-strategic-ukrainian-town\/"},"modified":"2024-05-25T11:11:55","modified_gmt":"2024-05-25T11:11:55","slug":"drones-have-offered-last-line-of-defense-for-a-strategic-ukrainian-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/25\/drones-have-offered-last-line-of-defense-for-a-strategic-ukrainian-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Drones Have Offered Last Line of Defense for a Strategic Ukrainian Town"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/22\/multimedia\/00ukraine-chasiv-yar-01-promo\/00ukraine-chasiv-yar-01-gbzh-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Drones Have Offered Last Line of Defense for a Strategic Ukrainian Town\" title=\"Drones Have Offered Last Line of Defense for a Strategic Ukrainian Town\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The commander stepped over boxes stacked full of plastic drones and opened the lid on a new delivery. Inside lay the light gray fins of a mini plane, the latest addition to his arsenal of crewless aerial vehicles for fighting the Russian Army.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The 33-year-old leader of what an internal report declared Ukrainian Army\u2019s best-performing drone unit, Senior Lt. Yuriy Fedorenko \u2014 popularly known by his call sign, Achilles \u2014 has been the main constraint on the Russian attempt to seize the strategic town of Chasiv Yar on Ukraine\u2019s teetering eastern front.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For months, his drone teams, part of the 92nd Assault Brigade, have been filling a gap for other units of the army that have struggled with a shortage of troops and ammunition. The teams work day and night attacking Russian armor, dropping explosives on Russian positions and using their drones to ferry supplies to Ukrainian soldiers along the front line.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For the Ukrainians, holding Chasiv Yar is critical. Set on a ridge, five miles west of the destroyed city of Bakhmut, the town commands the heights above a crescent of industrial cities and villages that are home to roughly 200,000 residents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Chasiv Yar is the gateway to the last part of the Donetsk region that is still in Ukrainian hands. If Russian forces were to capture the town, they would have the whole of the larger eastern area known as the Donbas within their grasp, long a goal of President Vladimir V. Putin\u2019s. The cities of Kostyantinivka, Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, just miles beyond Chasiv Yar, have come under increasingly heavy bombardment in recent months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWithout us, the Russians would be in Kyiv region by now,\u201d Achilles said in an interview in a secret base set back from the front line. An exaggeration, perhaps, he said. (Kyiv, the capital, is far to the west.) Yet, he insisted, \u201cWithout the drones, we would lose.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Achilles showed reporters from The New York Times his workshops, proudly pointing out where engineers installed and updated software, and mechanics tested the machines and added components, readying the drones for battle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But when he sat down to talk, Achilles, a trained martial arts fighter, expressed anger and disappointment at the broken promises of Western allies and the losses that, he said, Ukraine took as a result. A monthslong delay by the U.S. Congress in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/20\/us\/politics\/house-foreign-aid-bill.html\" title=\"\">approving a supplemental aid package<\/a> for Ukraine left its forces drastically short of artillery and air-defense weapons, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe have an absolutely absurd situation,\u201d he said. \u201cImagine a boxing match where there are equal boxers but one of them can hit once while his opponent can hit 10 times.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s an absolute theater of the absurd,\u201d he added. With no air-defense weapons, the Ukrainians were reduced to mounting machine guns on the back of pickup trucks to shoot at Russian Shahed drones, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The fighting on the eastern front has never been more brutal, he said. Since a lack of artillery rounds was first felt in September, the Ukrainian Army has been steadily losing ground before a relentless and expanding Russian attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Ukrainians managed to prevent a major Russian breakthrough over the winter, but at the end of February, the Russians began an all-out assault toward Chasiv Yar, Achilles said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">With his reconnaissance drones, he saw Russian soldiers massing. \u201cI realized they were coming,\u201d he said. But without enough artillery shells, the Ukrainians could not hit the Russian rear supply routes as they usually would to pre-empt an attack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Russian offensive followed a tactic that the Ukrainians saw in the cities of Bakhmut and then Avdiivka \u2014 using glide bombs, aerial bombs that can weigh up to one and a half tons and that can smash through concrete bunkers and multistory buildings \u2014 to inflict a devastating barrage on Ukrainian forward positions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey were going step by step, taking one position after the other,\u201d Achilles said. \u201cWhere our lines were very strongly fortified, the Russians were using guided aviation bombs, just leveling these positions to the ground. This is how they approached close to Chasiv Yar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis happened after our shortage of ammunition and our artillery had nothing to fire with,\u201d he went on. Cannons were firing only two rounds a day when they should have been firing at least 30, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He showed on a map on his cellphone where Russian bombs had demolished three lines of Ukrainian defenses, marching across the fields to reach the edge of the town.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">No one could withstand such bombardment, and the Ukrainians troops took casualties and had to retreat, he said. With his drones, Achilles and his teams watched Russian infantry advance and take over the Ukrainian positions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Two of his drone pilots, Sich, 24, and Shuryk, 26, who identified themselves only by their call signs in keeping with military protocol, said they watched the hard-won territorial gains they had fought for as infantry soldiers be overrun.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt was sad,\u201d said Sich, who won a medal for bravery when he took a group of Russian soldiers prisoner during the capture of the village of Klishchiivka. Life as frontline infantrymen was so tough, he and Shuryk transferred to Achilles\u2019s drone battalion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now they use Ukrainian-made Vampire drones to hit Russian positions or to supply their fellow soldiers at the front.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe deliver them supplies, ammunition, sleeping bags,\u201d Sich said. \u201cOne of the problems is water.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The extensive use of explosive drones by both Russian and Ukrainian Armies has made any movement near the front line so dangerous that crewless drones have been increasingly used to deliver supplies to the trenches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One Ukrainian unit spent 21 days in the trenches, at what the Ukrainians call zero line, without a break, Shuryk said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt is very difficult on zero line because it is usually full of wreckage, broken trees and bomb debris,\u201d said Shuryk. \u201cWe try and go in as low as possible and land the box precisely in the trench where the guys are sheltering so they don\u2019t have to risk going out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In mid-April, according to Achilles, the Russians mounted another assault toward Chasiv Yar, with 30 tanks and armored vehicles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Still short of artillery, the Ukrainian troops knocked out at least 22 of the Russian vehicles, he said, adding that most of the strikes were by his drone teams. He said they attacked with drones loaded with explosives, or with drones used to drop mines in the path of the Russian armor. Some were hit at close range by Ukrainian infantry using antitank weapons.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAll that we can do now, with the drones we have, is slow down their advance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For the men in the trenches, the superior Russian firepower and numbers are crushing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s assaults, assaults, assaults, assaults,\u201d said Rul, 38, command sergeant major of the 126th Territorial Defense Brigade, who recently deployed from southern Ukraine with a battalion to help defend Chasiv Yar. \u201cWe have a lot of wounded, and a lot of dead; it\u2019s war,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I just came from the headquarters of our battalion and our guys are heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Russians had made three assaults just an hour earlier and his men repelled all three, killing seven Russians with only one wounded on the Ukrainian side, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Russians would probably succeed in capturing the outlying district of Novy Chasiv Yar over the next few weeks, Achilles predicted. But by then, he said he expected the new supplies from the aid package approved by Congress in April to have arrived, and with them, he added hopefully, the Ukrainian troops would be able to hold the town.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Oleksandr Chubko<!-- --> contributed reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/25\/world\/europe\/ukraine-drones-defense-chasiv-yar.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The commander stepped over boxes stacked full of plastic drones and opened the lid on a new delivery. Inside lay the light gray fins of a mini plane, the latest addition to his arsenal of crewless aerial vehicles for fighting the Russian Army. The 33-year-old leader of what an internal report declared Ukrainian Army\u2019s best-performing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/22\/multimedia\/00ukraine-chasiv-yar-01-promo\/00ukraine-chasiv-yar-01-gbzh-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5663,5138,5627,56,15622,18149,9292],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58731,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58729\/revisions\/58731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}