A Never-Ending Supply of Drones Has Frozen the Front Lines in Ukraine – The Wall Street Journal
How did your country report this? Share your view in the comments.
Diverging Reports Breakdown
A never-ending supply of drones has frozen the front lines in Ukraine
Drones can lay mines, deliver everything from ammunition to medication and even evacuate wounded or dead soldiers. Each side has hundreds of them constantly in the air across the 750-mile front line. With explosives strapped to them, FPV drones fly directly into their targets, turning them into low-cost suicide bombers. Ukraine smuggled a horde of FPVs hundreds of miles beyond the front line and piloted them remotely toward their targets in its audacious attack on Russia’s strategic aircraft in June. The Russians have since adopted FPVs en masse and their abundance has played a central role in slowing down the movement of theFront line. The main defense against FPVs has been electronic jamming systems, which disrupt the communication between the drone and the pilot. The addition of a fiber-optic cable to the drone to the front-line can overcome the threat from FPV jamming. By 2024, the threat will be posed by the Vampire drone, so named because it can work in the dark when equipped with nightvision cameras.
From just a few commercial and homemade drones, which the Ukrainians used at the start of the war to locate invading Russian columns, unmanned vehicles now dominate the battlefield.
Each side has hundreds of them constantly in the air across the 750-mile front line. Drones can lay mines, deliver everything from ammunition to medication and even evacuate wounded or dead soldiers. Crucially, drones spot any movement along the front line and are dispatched to strike enemy troops and vehicles.
‘Wedding drones’ at war
When Russia sent tank columns into Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine needed to find out where they were headed—and fast.
Enter the humble “wedding drone,” available in stores for about $2,000 and repurposed to scan for enemy units rather than capture nuptial panoramas.
Deployed by enthusiasts acting independently or attached to army units, the drones helped Ukrainian forces, which were vastly outnumbered and outgunned, to know exactly where to deploy to counter Russian arrowheads.
Drones turn deadly
Surveillance drones quickly became a necessity rather than a luxury. Often provided by charity funds, they were used to scan enemy positions for equipment, stores and headquarters. At first, teams of analysts would watch screens of footage stored on memory cards. Within a year of the full-scale invasion, the drones provided real-time images so artillery gunners could direct their fire onto a target.
A cheap and simple tweak made the so-called wedding drones deadly. Tech buffs realized that a simple claw-like contraption, created using a 3-D printer, could be activated from the radio controller by turning on the drone’s light, causing it to release a grenade.
The explosion could wound or kill a soldier or even detonate an armored vehicle if dropped through its hatch.
Over time, soldiers experimented with ways to add more explosives, for example by melting down explosives garnered from Soviet-era munitions and pouring them into new, lighter plastic casings.
Suicide drones
No innovation has had a bigger impact on the war in Ukraine than first-person-view, or FPV, drones. With explosives strapped to them, FPVs fly directly into their targets, turning them into low-cost suicide bombers.
Though FPVs don’t deliver as much explosive punch as rockets, they are far more accurate—and the sheer volume that Ukraine has manufactured means they can be deployed to similar effect.
FPVs began appearing on the battlefield in 2022, but it was in late 2023 that they began reshaping it.
That winter, Ukraine was desperately low on artillery ammunition, as its forces waited on the U.S. to approve another military-aid package. FPVs became a lifeline, a way to mostly hold the Russians back using technology that—unlike rockets or missiles—could be manufactured domestically and cheaply.
Sitting in a bunker several miles behind the front, a drone pilot slips on FPV goggles to see the view from the drone’s camera and fly it into an enemy position or asset. The Russians have since adopted FPVs en masse. Their abundance has played a central role in slowing down the movement of the front line. Anything within around 12 miles of the contact line can now become a target for FPVs. They are so cheap to make that both sides can expend them on any target—even a single infantryman.
Sometimes, FPVs are a menace far further from home: Ukraine smuggled a horde of FPVs hundreds of miles beyond the front line and piloted them remotely toward their targets in its audacious attack on Russia’s strategic aircraft in June.
Because they are so small and fast, FPVs are difficult to shoot down. The main defense against them has been electronic jamming systems, which disrupt the communication between the drone and the pilot.
Fiber-optic drones
Though most drone innovations in the war have come from the Ukrainian side, the Russians pioneered the most important adaptation for FPV drones—the addition of a fiber-optic cable connecting the drone to the pilot that can overcome jamming.
By 2024, the threat from FPV drones had made resupplying troops at the front perilous. Ukraine found a workaround: the Vampire drone, so named in part because it can work after dark when equipped with night-vision cameras.
Two-feet tall, with six or eight rotors, and able to carry up to 20 pounds, Vampires were originally used by Ukrainian forces to drop larger explosives than they could using smaller drones.
Land drones deliver the dead
The drones now bring everything from food and water to ammunition, power banks—and, in at least one case, a fire extinguisher—to the front, sparing soldiers trips through the most dangerous part of the battlefield where enemy drones might pick them off.
Ukrainian troops are also beginning to use land drones to move heavier loads than the Vampires can carry.
Drone manufacturers are now experimenting with remotely piloted cars, boats and all-terrain vehicles, which can be used to help with the evacuations of injured and dead soldiers.
Can Europe replace the US in Ukraine?
Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told POLITICO: “The most powerful leverage Trump has on Ukraine is to threaten non-delivery of weapons. We have, in my view, six months before we would really start to feel the lack of weapons on the front line”
There is a reason to worry about U.S. intentions.
In the month since he was sworn in as U.S. president, Trump has jumped into peace talks with Russia (without consulting allies), falsely claimed that Ukraine started the war, called Zelenskyy a dictator who had duped the U.S. out of billions of dollars, and is now gutting decades of U.S. political, economic, diplomatic and military policy toward its allies.
Europe has noticed.
Friedrich Merz, the conservative candidate who will be Germany’s next chancellor, declared he wanted Europe to gain full “independence” from the United States on defense.
There is no question that U.S. aid is very important. When Congress refused to approve more aid for Kyiv over a year ago, the Ukrainian military suffered artillery ammunition and air defense shortages that allowed Russia to press its advantage along the frontlines.
Europe Can’t Make Ukraine Enough Weapons—So It’s Paying Kyiv to Do It
Ukraine faces an increasingly bleak road ahead after two-and-a-half years of war. Europeans are financing Ukrainian government contracts with cash-strapped Ukrainian arms makers. Kyiv tells its allies which companies to work with and armaments to buy.
KYIV, Ukraine—Ukraine’s European allies, struggling to produce enough weapons for Kyiv’s war effort, are pioneering a new method: giving Ukrainians money to do it themselves.
In the new approach, Europeans are financing Ukrainian government contracts with cash-strapped Ukrainian arms makers to produce equipment for the country’s armed forces, including long-range missiles and drones that can strike Russian territory. Kyiv tells its allies which companies to work with and armaments to buy, and the Europeans vet the producers independently before agreeing to deals.
WSJ: Trump Team Proposes 20-Year Freeze on Ukraine’s NATO Bid in Exchange for Peace
The Wall Street Journal reported that President-elect Donald Trump’s team has drafted a proposal to end the ongoing war in Ukraine war on Thursday. Allegedly the plan includes significant conditions: Ukraine should give up its NATO membership aspirations for at least 20 years, the freezing of the current front lines and the establishment of a demilitarized zone between Russian-held territory and Ukraine. The plan is said to exclude the possibility of US troops or UN contingents to monitor and enforce any ceasefire, instead suggesting that Kyiv’s European allies – such as Poland, Germany, Britain, and France – should take on the responsibility. At present, neither Russia, which continues its offensives, nor Ukraine, which has said it is unwilling to concede territory, have signaled readiness for talks.
could be interesting for you: Ukraine News in English – Exclusive Stories You Won’t Find Elsewhere!
The plan is said to exclude the possibility of US troops or UN contingents to monitor and enforce any ceasefire, instead suggesting that Kyiv’s European allies – such as Poland, Germany, Britain, and France – should take on the responsibility.
JOIN US ON TELEGRAM Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.
According to the WSJ source within Trump’s team, the US would continue to provide military training and support including weapons to Ukraine to help deter further Russian advances. However, previous reports from Trump’s advisors have hinted at the possibility that Washington could suspend military aid as a way to encourage Kyiv to enter peace negotiations.
Advertisement
It remains uncertain how serious this plan is and whether Trump would fully implement it upon taking office. At present, neither Russia, which continues its offensives, nor Ukraine, which has said it is unwilling to concede territory, have signaled readiness for talks, according to the WSJ.
Trump said during his campaign that he would resolve the war quickly, bringing both sides to the negotiating table without revealing how: “I can’t give you those plans because if I give you those plans, I’m not going to be able to use them,” he said.
Other Topics of Interest Ukrainian-US Group MITS Capital Invests in Ground Drone Maker Tencore, a Ukraine-based developer of unmanned ground vehicles, signed the deal with the largest international investor working in Ukraine’s DefenseTech ecosystem.
An unnamed former Trump National Security Council aide told the WSJ that this plan may be nothing more than speculation saying whoever was putting it forward and claims to “have a window into his [Trump’s] plans on Ukraine simply doesn’t know what he or she is talking about or doesn’t understand that he makes his own calls on national-security issues… particularly on an issue as central as this.”
Advertisement
The US, Ukraine’s largest ally, has provided substantial aid under the current administration and President Joe Biden has also stressed that any peace discussions must involve Kyiv and respect its sovereignty.
While some Ukrainians following Trump’s election said they are fearful of the fallout for Kyiv from Trump’s victory – with his running mate JD Vance having been vocally against further aid to Ukraine – some remain hopeful that Trump could put an end to the war, while some Trump skeptics search for a silver lining.
Anton, a real estate manager from Kyiv who was polled by Kyiv Post, said he did so because Trump “represents a hope for a swift end to the war.”
“For many Ukrainians, Trump represents a hope for a swift end to the war. People are weary – losing family members, seeing children and neighbors suffer, of living under constant fire. I am skeptical of recent polls suggesting that 60-70% of Ukrainians are willing to fight indefinitely.”
Discover how Ukrainians reacted to Donald Trump’s election as the next President of the United States here.