Five Russian soldiers, armed with rifles and grenades, crawled from their trenches into a low-lying ravine, ready to assault the Ukrainian position. At least one of them heard a hornet-like hum and looked up, into the lens of a drone looming above them, and realized that they had been detected.
Little happens in this war without the other side watching.
From an outcrop of jagged trees shedding their leaves before the onset of winter, a group of Ukrainian infantrymen swiftly retaliated with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. At the same time, armed drones, operated miles away from the trenches, dropped grenades. The sound of incoming and outgoing fire merged, making a chorus of battle between trench lines just 150 meters, or nearly 500 feet, apart.
At first glance, the fighting resembled many of the thousands of battlegrounds dotting Ukraine, each with their own array of trenches and bunkers. But the Ukrainian soldiers said that a Russian breakthrough here, outside the city of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine, could have catastrophic consequences for their country’s defense against the Kremlin’s invasion.
“If I lose these positions now, all the units in Toretsk will be cut off from resupply and logistics because all the roads are behind me,” said the battalion commander of the 28th Mechanized Brigade, going by his call sign, Nesquik, according to military protocol.
The Ukrainians fight from fortified, dug-in bunkers. There is rarely a chance to move in the open, where Russian drones, some equipped with thermal night vision, can quickly kill them. Mines are hidden across land where soldiers might inch forward, if they could. At the same time, Russian jets, artillery and mortars wreak havoc from above.
Russian soldiers storm the Ukrainian position about twice a week, in a style of warfare that Russian forces have themselves compared with being put into a meat grinder. The soldiers often appear to be poorly trained convicts who, seeking freedom, money or redemption, now fight for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. About once a month, they are joined by much better trained troops from Russia’s airborne units, and in more significant numbers.
The Ukrainian troops captured their position from Russian fighters from the Wagner paramilitary group more than a year ago and have held the line since.
A defeat could cascade into strategic losses in eastern Ukraine’s industrial heartland. It would start with neighboring Toretsk, where urban street fighting already rages, and later bleed into more significant and strategically valuable cities. Advancing here would allow Moscow to block a supply line that connects Ukrainian forces in much of the east, cutting them off from critical medicine and ammunition.
A city just to the northwest of the brigade’s position, Kostiantynivka, is especially important, Ukrainian forces said, because it could provide highway routes to reach other major cities, like Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, bypassing obstacles like forests and rivers. A Russian takeover there could spell the end of Ukrainian control of the industrial Donbas region — one of Mr. Putin’s stated objectives when the invasion began.
“Any school kid understands now that Kostiantynivka is the key town,” said Yevgen, a press officer with the brigade who asked that only his first name be used.
Russian commanders appear to know this, too, and their forces have gained slow, costly ground against Ukrainian troops in swaths of the east.
But sophisticated, armed drones have changed the combat, at least to a degree. Before the flying machines became prevalent, both the Ukrainians and Russians could advance in phases, building trenches and fortifications along the way.
Now, digging under an open sky exposes soldiers to sudden, explosive danger, so troops cannot pause as they move ahead. They have to make assaults in one-shot sprints, immediately occupying trenches and bunkers where sometimes the tea made by men they killed moments before is still warm.
With the drones so often watching, infantrymen do not get to use the element of surprise on the battlefield as they once could. Bombings from artillery, mortars and jets can come without warning, but human movement rarely does.
Still, beneath the invisible net of high-tech surveillance, much of the battlefield resembles wars past. “If you think of it in general terms, it’s the maneuverable defense of the Second World War. Nothing has changed,” Nesquik said, referring to a strategy that stressed mobility and opportunism. “Don’t forget about minefields. It is not as simple as it seems. All new is well-forgotten old.”
So, too, are the familiar routines once the gunfire tapers off and a ghostly calm returns to the forest. Soldiers return to their regular duties: a shift on watch, meal preparation or chatting with wives on their phones over a satellite connection, holding the line until the next attack. Not far away, Russian troops are doing much the same, tea brewing in both camps.
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