{"id":1828274,"date":"2026-03-13T20:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T17:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1828274"},"modified":"2026-03-13T20:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T17:08:11","slug":"russia-and-ukraine-wage-high-tech-war-in-the-death-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1828274","title":{"rendered":"Russia and Ukraine wage high-tech war in the ‘death zone’"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/76283126_6.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/p.dw.com\/p\/5AMnp<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n
Drones, robots and sensors have radically changed life on the front linesImage: Viacheslav Madiievskyi\/Ukrinform\/abaca\/picture alliance<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The corn in the fields stands several feet tall\u00a0\u2014 it hasn\u2019t been harvested in a long time. Villages are destroyed and deserted. Burnt-out car wrecks line the roadsides. There is\u00a0no sign\u00a0of fighting \u2014 the area in the Kharkiv region near the Russian border\u00a0looks downright eerie.<\/p>\n

These images from reconnaissance drones and stationary video cameras are continuously transmitted to the monitors at a Ukrainian command post. Here, the National Guard\u2019s Khartiia Brigade monitors the region. The post is a few kilometers from the front line, in the basement of an abandoned building north of Kharkiv in Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The battalion commander goes by “Thunder” and he doesn’t take his eyes off the monitors for a second. The weather was clear, the sky cloudless; reconnaissance must be especially vigilant. “If the enemy advances close to our positions, then we\u2019ve overlooked something somewhere,” Thunder told DW.<\/p>\n

Traditional shelters and trenches no longer offer protection in this war<\/a>, he said:\u00a0“The entire infantry \u2014 both Ukrainian and enemy soldiers\u00a0\u2014 are\u00a0digging into underground tunnels to remain out of reach of attack of the\u00a0drones<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

\"Portrait
‘Whoever has the best shelters dominates,’ Brigade Commander Thunder saysImage: DW<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To spot traces of the enemy, he said, the brigade members carefully “read signs on the ground from the sky.”\u00a0They hunt for subtle\u00a0clues: trash left on the streets of abandoned villages, freshly churned earth in gardens, a small pile of wood in the middle of a yard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pilot Oleksiy steered a drone toward one of the houses and spotted something suspicious near a well. “It looks like animal tracks, but theoretically someone could have stopped there to fetch water. We\u2019ll have to check that out later,” he said. He scans the nearby road: Reconnaissance had noticed\u00a0a civilian vehicle there. Just\u00a0moments earlier, they had reported\u00a0it\u00a0stopping\u00a0for a few minutes near a small cluster of trees.<\/p>\n

“The enemy is constantly supplying its infantry,” Oleksiy told DW.<\/p>\n

As soon as his brigade discovers a Russian hideout, combat drones are sent there. “Russia<\/a> does the same thing,” Thunder said. “Whoever has the best hideouts and the upper hand with drones dominates.”<\/p>\n

Delivering supplies with\u00a0ground robots<\/h2>\n

It is essential that\u00a0underground shelters\u00a0remain undetected for as long as possible. As a result, Ukraine’s armed forces are increasingly relying on unmanned ground vehicles \u2014 rather than cars \u2014 to transport supplies and combat equipment, clear mines\u00a0and evacuate wounded people. Different types of these robotic systems can carry 200 to 700 kilograms (440-1,540 pounds) of cargo.<\/p>\n

\"tiny
A parked civilian vehicle catches the attention of Ukrainian military personnelImage: DW<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The enemy is actively “hunting” Ukrainian ground robots, a commander known as “Scrooge” said. His brigade sends unmanned platforms loaded with supplies to\u00a0positions every night. The\u00a0DW reporter met\u00a0him at the stroke of midnight in the middle of the steppe, on the outskirts of a village on the Kupiansk front line in the Kharkiv region.<\/p>\n

There, quadcopters, combat gear, provisions\u00a0and fuel were hurriedly loaded onto the various platforms. Everything had\u00a0to happen very quickly, because enemy combat drones have been spotted circling just 5 kilometers (3 miles) away.<\/p>\n

‘Dream’ is shattered<\/h2>\n

First, a ground robot\u00a0nicknamed “Dream” was dispatched. According to the plan, the cargo would arrive within two hours. A pilot controlled the platform from a distance of 40 kilometers. Dream was accompanied by a reconnaissance drone controlled from another command post about 20 kilometers away.<\/p>\n

\"Portrait
“The main thing is that no one dies,” Brigade Commander “Scrooge” saysImage: DW<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Halfway there, Dream had to suddenly stop because an enemy combat drone was sighted. About an hour later, the platform came\u00a0under attack. At the company\u2019s control point, the cargo could\u00a0be seen catching fire.<\/p>\n

\"Two
Loading “Dream,” a ground-based robotic systemImage: Olexandra Indiukhova\/DW<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scrooge said Dream was an “experienced fighter” and had\u00a0sustained two “wounds,” and mechanics would likely be able to repair Dream. The other deliveries went successfully, so the loss of Dream\u00a0isn\u2019t so bad.\u00a0“It\u2019s just a machine,” Scrooge said. “The main thing is that no people\u00a0die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robots and drones instead of soldiers<\/h2>\n

The commander said Ukrainian ground robots were advancing faster than Russia’s. He showed DW a combat platform ready for deployment in his company\u2019s workshop; mounted on it is a large-caliber US Browning machine gun.<\/p>\n

Scrooge said\u00a0it was capable of destroying enemy troops and equipment. Batteries can be used to keep the platform in standby mode for a\u00a0long period.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a robot with a machine gun can attack the enemy from a distance of1 1\/2 kilometers, that alone is psychologically difficult for those under attack,” said Yuriy, the company\u2019s mechanic.<\/p>\n

\"A
The control room of the Reconnaissance Brigade near KharkivImage: DW<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scrooge is a career soldier and comes from a military family. He said it was only a matter of time before “instead of soldiers, only technology \u2014 robots and drones \u2014 will be on the battlefield.”<\/p>\n

“People will be sitting 100 kilometers away and controlling them,” he said. He added:\u00a0“All the operations you saw here tonight could\u00a0be controlled from anywhere in the world.”<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in Ukrainian.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

\n

The corn in the fields stands several feet tall\u00a0\u2014 it hasn\u2019t been harvested in a long time. Villages are destroyed and deserted. Burnt-out car wrecks line the roadsides. There is\u00a0no sign\u00a0of fighting \u2014 the area in the Kharkiv region near the Russian border\u00a0looks downright eerie.<\/p>\n

These images from reconnaissance drones and stationary video cameras are continuously transmitted to the monitors at a Ukrainian command post. Here, the National Guard\u2019s Khartiia Brigade monitors the region. The post is a few kilometers from the front line, in the basement of an abandoned building north of Kharkiv in Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The battalion commander goes by “Thunder” and he doesn’t take his eyes off the monitors for a second. The weather was clear, the sky cloudless; reconnaissance must be especially vigilant. “If the enemy advances close to our positions, then we\u2019ve overlooked something somewhere,” Thunder told DW.<\/p>\n

Traditional shelters and trenches no longer offer protection in this war<\/a>, he said:\u00a0“The entire infantry \u2014 both Ukrainian and enemy soldiers\u00a0\u2014 are\u00a0digging into underground tunnels to remain out of reach of attack of the\u00a0drones<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

\"Portrait
‘Whoever has the best shelters dominates,’ Brigade Commander Thunder saysImage: DW<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To spot traces of the enemy, he said, the brigade members carefully “read signs on the ground from the sky.”\u00a0They hunt for subtle\u00a0clues: trash left on the streets of abandoned villages, freshly churned earth in gardens, a small pile of wood in the middle of a yard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pilot Oleksiy steered a drone toward one of the houses and spotted something suspicious near a well. “It looks like animal tracks, but theoretically someone could have stopped there to fetch water. We\u2019ll have to check that out later,” he said. He scans the nearby road: Reconnaissance had noticed\u00a0a civilian vehicle there. Just\u00a0moments earlier, they had reported\u00a0it\u00a0stopping\u00a0for a few minutes near a small cluster of trees.<\/p>\n

“The enemy is constantly supplying its infantry,” Oleksiy told DW.<\/p>\n

As soon as his brigade discovers a Russian hideout, combat drones are sent there. “Russia<\/a> does the same thing,” Thunder said. “Whoever has the best hideouts and the upper hand with drones dominates.”<\/p>\n

Delivering supplies with\u00a0ground robots<\/h2>\n

It is essential that\u00a0underground shelters\u00a0remain undetected for as long as possible. As a result, Ukraine’s armed forces are increasingly relying on unmanned ground vehicles \u2014 rather than cars \u2014 to transport supplies and combat equipment, clear mines\u00a0and evacuate wounded people. Different types of these robotic systems can carry 200 to 700 kilograms (440-1,540 pounds) of cargo.<\/p>\n

\"tiny
A parked civilian vehicle catches the attention of Ukrainian military personnelImage: DW<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The enemy is actively “hunting” Ukrainian ground robots, a commander known as “Scrooge” said. His brigade sends unmanned platforms loaded with supplies to\u00a0positions every night. The\u00a0DW reporter met\u00a0him at the stroke of midnight in the middle of the steppe, on the outskirts of a village on the Kupiansk front line in the Kharkiv region.<\/p>\n

There, quadcopters, combat gear, provisions\u00a0and fuel were hurriedly loaded onto the various platforms. Everything had\u00a0to happen very quickly, because enemy combat drones have been spotted circling just 5 kilometers (3 miles) away.<\/p>\n

‘Dream’ is shattered<\/h2>\n

First, a ground robot\u00a0nicknamed “Dream” was dispatched. According to the plan, the cargo would arrive within two hours. A pilot controlled the platform from a distance of 40 kilometers. Dream was accompanied by a reconnaissance drone controlled from another command post about 20 kilometers away.<\/p>\n

\"Portrait
“The main thing is that no one dies,” Brigade Commander “Scrooge” saysImage: DW<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Halfway there, Dream had to suddenly stop because an enemy combat drone was sighted. About an hour later, the platform came\u00a0under attack. At the company\u2019s control point, the cargo could\u00a0be seen catching fire.<\/p>\n

\"Two
Loading “Dream,” a ground-based robotic systemImage: Olexandra Indiukhova\/DW<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scrooge said Dream was an “experienced fighter” and had\u00a0sustained two “wounds,” and mechanics would likely be able to repair Dream. The other deliveries went successfully, so the loss of Dream\u00a0isn\u2019t so bad.\u00a0“It\u2019s just a machine,” Scrooge said. “The main thing is that no people\u00a0die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robots and drones instead of soldiers<\/h2>\n

The commander said Ukrainian ground robots were advancing faster than Russia’s. He showed DW a combat platform ready for deployment in his company\u2019s workshop; mounted on it is a large-caliber US Browning machine gun.<\/p>\n

Scrooge said\u00a0it was capable of destroying enemy troops and equipment. Batteries can be used to keep the platform in standby mode for a\u00a0long period.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a robot with a machine gun can attack the enemy from a distance of1 1\/2 kilometers, that alone is psychologically difficult for those under attack,” said Yuriy, the company\u2019s mechanic.<\/p>\n

\"A
The control room of the Reconnaissance Brigade near KharkivImage: DW<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scrooge is a career soldier and comes from a military family. He said it was only a matter of time before “instead of soldiers, only technology \u2014 robots and drones \u2014 will be on the battlefield.”<\/p>\n

“People will be sitting 100 kilometers away and controlling them,” he said. He added:\u00a0“All the operations you saw here tonight could\u00a0be controlled from anywhere in the world.”<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in Ukrainian.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The corn in the fields stands several feet tall\u00a0\u2014 it hasn\u2019t been harvested in a long time. Villages are destroyed and deserted. Burnt-out car wrecks line the roadsides. There is\u00a0no sign\u00a0of fighting \u2014 the area in the Kharkiv region near the Russian border\u00a0looks downright eerie.<\/p>\n

These images from reconnaissance drones and stationary video cameras are continuously transmitted to the monitors at a Ukrainian command post. Here, the National Guard\u2019s Khartiia Brigade monitors the region. The post is a few kilometers from the front line, in the basement of an abandoned building north of Kharkiv in Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The battalion commander goes by “Thunder” and he doesn’t take his eyes off the monitors for a second. The weather was clear, the sky cloudless; reconnaissance must be especially vigilant. “If the enemy advances close to our positions, then we\u2019ve overlooked something somewhere,” Thunder told DW.<\/p>\n

Traditional shelters and trenches no longer offer protection in this war<\/a>, he said:\u00a0“The entire infantry \u2014 both Ukrainian and enemy soldiers\u00a0\u2014 are\u00a0digging into underground tunnels to remain out of reach of attack of the\u00a0drones<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

To spot traces of the enemy, he said, the brigade members carefully “read signs on the ground from the sky.”\u00a0They hunt for subtle\u00a0clues: trash left on the streets of abandoned villages, freshly churned earth in gardens, a small pile of wood in the middle of a yard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pilot Oleksiy steered a drone toward one of the houses and spotted something suspicious near a well. “It looks like animal tracks, but theoretically someone could have stopped there to fetch water. We\u2019ll have to check that out later,” he said. He scans the nearby road: Reconnaissance had noticed\u00a0a civilian vehicle there. Just\u00a0moments earlier, they had reported\u00a0it\u00a0stopping\u00a0for a few minutes near a small cluster of trees.<\/p>\n

“The enemy is constantly supplying its infantry,” Oleksiy told DW.<\/p>\n

As soon as his brigade discovers a Russian hideout, combat drones are sent there. “Russia<\/a> does the same thing,” Thunder said. “Whoever has the best hideouts and the upper hand with drones dominates.”<\/p>\n

It is essential that\u00a0underground shelters\u00a0remain undetected for as long as possible. As a result, Ukraine’s armed forces are increasingly relying on unmanned ground vehicles \u2014 rather than cars \u2014 to transport supplies and combat equipment, clear mines\u00a0and evacuate wounded people. Different types of these robotic systems can carry 200 to 700 kilograms (440-1,540 pounds) of cargo.<\/p>\n

The enemy is actively “hunting” Ukrainian ground robots, a commander known as “Scrooge” said. His brigade sends unmanned platforms loaded with supplies to\u00a0positions every night. The\u00a0DW reporter met\u00a0him at the stroke of midnight in the middle of the steppe, on the outskirts of a village on the Kupiansk front line in the Kharkiv region.<\/p>\n

There, quadcopters, combat gear, provisions\u00a0and fuel were hurriedly loaded onto the various platforms. Everything had\u00a0to happen very quickly, because enemy combat drones have been spotted circling just 5 kilometers (3 miles) away.<\/p>\n

First, a ground robot\u00a0nicknamed “Dream” was dispatched. According to the plan, the cargo would arrive within two hours. A pilot controlled the platform from a distance of 40 kilometers. Dream was accompanied by a reconnaissance drone controlled from another command post about 20 kilometers away.<\/p>\n

Halfway there, Dream had to suddenly stop because an enemy combat drone was sighted. About an hour later, the platform came\u00a0under attack. At the company\u2019s control point, the cargo could\u00a0be seen catching fire.<\/p>\n

Scrooge said Dream was an “experienced fighter” and had\u00a0sustained two “wounds,” and mechanics would likely be able to repair Dream. The other deliveries went successfully, so the loss of Dream\u00a0isn\u2019t so bad.\u00a0“It\u2019s just a machine,” Scrooge said. “The main thing is that no people\u00a0die.\u201d<\/p>\n

The commander said Ukrainian ground robots were advancing faster than Russia’s. He showed DW a combat platform ready for deployment in his company\u2019s workshop; mounted on it is a large-caliber US Browning machine gun.<\/p>\n

Scrooge said\u00a0it was capable of destroying enemy troops and equipment. Batteries can be used to keep the platform in standby mode for a\u00a0long period.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a robot with a machine gun can attack the enemy from a distance of1 1\/2 kilometers, that alone is psychologically difficult for those under attack,” said Yuriy, the company\u2019s mechanic.<\/p>\n

Scrooge is a career soldier and comes from a military family. He said it was only a matter of time before “instead of soldiers, only technology \u2014 robots and drones \u2014 will be on the battlefield.”<\/p>\n

“People will be sitting 100 kilometers away and controlling them,” he said. He added:\u00a0“All the operations you saw here tonight could\u00a0be controlled from anywhere in the world.”<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in Ukrainian.<\/em><\/p>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/76283126_6.jpg”] https:\/\/p.dw.com\/p\/5AMnp Drones, robots and sensors have radically changed life on the front linesImage: Viacheslav Madiievskyi\/Ukrinform\/abaca\/picture alliance The corn in the fields stands several feet tall\u00a0\u2014 it hasn\u2019t been harvested in a long time. Villages are destroyed and deserted. Burnt-out car wrecks line the roadsides. There is\u00a0no sign\u00a0of fighting \u2014 the area in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,74],"class_list":["post-1828274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dw-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1828274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1828274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1828274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1828274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}