On foot, with 'kamikaze' drones and little artillery: this is how Ukraine defends its advances in Robotine

In a flat terrain, without a single fold for shelter or hardly any buildings, with the few hills to the east and south occupied by enemy artillery, the effort made by the Ukrainian army to repel the Russian invader on the Robotine front ( Zaporizhzhia region, southeastern Ukraine) is immense. This is not the time to attack, as in the summer, when kyiv’s troops, then well supplied by the West during its failed counteroffensive, recaptured the land on which this now empty village stands. Life after life, hundreds of soldiers from kyiv travel every day on foot the 10 kilometers that separate the place where they are transported to combat the positions of the Kremlin forces. There is no going back. Drones kamikaze FPV (First Person Vision) prevent armored vehicles from evacuating the wounded. Only by walking can they return, exposed to these unmanned vehicles. Despite this, their commanders affirm that they have not lost ground. The casualties of the aggressor army—dead and wounded—triple their own, they say. We must move forward.

Units of at least nine Russian regiments – airborne, motorized and air assault – relentlessly besiege this small pocket of land of about 80 square kilometers liberated by Ukraine last August on the southern front. The invader’s rockets and howitzers relentlessly punish the rear and have reduced Orijiv and Mala Tomachka, eight kilometers north of the combat zone, to rubble. Guided bombs launched by Moscow aviation also fall here, whose destructive power leaves craters up to 15 meters in diameter. Almost all residential buildings in these towns are totally or partially destroyed. Its population—except for a handful of elderly and impoverished people—has fled (14,000 people lived in Orijiv alone in peacetime). A contingent of some 25,000 soldiers, sheltered underground or hidden in rural homes throughout this agricultural area, has replaced it. The noise of cannon shots and explosions from both sides is permanent. Almost rhythmic.

This is one of the points where the Russian army has concentrated its troops in the advance that began in December. The importance of Robotine is more symbolic than strategic – it was Ukraine’s most celebrated conquest during its counterattack last summer – but, according to analysts, its siege serves to weaken Kiev’s forces against the Kremlin’s main military objective, in the this. Moscow wants what little it has left to occupy in the Luhansk region in the northeast and, from there, advance towards Kharkiv. After the Ukrainian withdrawal from Adviivka, it also seeks to take over the entire Donetsk region, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), based in Washington. The offensive in Robotine and further west on the left bank of the Dnieper, Kherson province, seeks to prevent kyiv from concentrating its men where the Russians want more significant advances. Unlike in Donbas, in Robotine and Kherson it has not managed to occupy more ground.

It has not succeeded, but the Ukrainians are paying a high cost, struggling with an increasingly evident lack of artillery ammunition. “Their tactics are always the same,” explains a Ukrainian special forces commander stationed at Robotine. “They send waves of small formations of between four and six soldiers. The first serves to locate us; They advance, and when we fire to defend them, they know our position. Then comes another small group supported by FPV drones that tries to destroy our men. Finally, a third group tries to take over our combat post,” adds this soldier, who has received training in Germany and the United Kingdom. “The only way to stop them is to resort to our drones, with grenade launchers, mortar fire or artillery.”

The latter, artillery ammunition, is the main problem. Both the 82 caliber mortar projectiles and those of the Soviet 120 millimeter and 155 millimeter howitzers, the latter supplied by NATO. “But what we need most are the 105 caliber [los utilizados por los cañones M-101, de fabricación estadounidense]”says another of the Ukrainian commanders. These howitzers have a range of more than 11 kilometers. “We receive that ammunition every week, but it is not enough. “That is the most important projectile, because it allows us to cover our soldiers on the ground.” This Friday alone, Robotine and the rest of the Zaporizhia front received six attacks with Russian MLRS rocket batteries and 218 artillery hits. Also 79 drone incursions, according to the State Administration in the region.

Residential buildings destroyed by Russian air and artillery bombardment in Orijiv.Manuel Altozano

A group of chickens and two dogs run through the yard of a country house less than 10 kilometers from the front. The place looks like a rural accommodation, but a vehicle Humvee (multipurpose high mobility military vehicle) hidden under the trees and covered by camouflage fabric indicates that this is military terrain. Inside this abandoned and half-ruined house, live three Ukrainian soldiers with intelligence functions. They work in a tiny cabin lined with silver asphalt coating to insulate themselves from the cold and not be detected by thermal devices. Along with a flag of the country, military-themed posters and children’s drawings is the device they work with. A laptop connected to a television shows the images of the front, obtained by the cameras of about twenty Mavic-type exploration drones. Just zoom in to see enemy soldiers crawling through trenches covered in leaves and logs.

“Our job is to monitor the movement of Russian troops and armor,” explains one of the men, who goes by the nickname Kotya (kitty) and is 26 years old. “When we see that four or five are grouped together at the same point, we notify our superiors,” he continues. Another unit is then in charge of sending another type of unmanned aerial vehicle to the place. kamikaze that is thrown at them. While Kotya tells what he does, the monitor shows it live. A Ukrainian drone is launched against enemy troops. Those who have managed to survive the impact crawl out of their hiding place, face to face. A few minutes later, three armored vehicles appear on the screen. The soldier approaches with the telephoto lens. “They are not attack vehicles. They are the ones who deal with the demining of the land,” he says. “We don’t have to report on those,” he adds. And he clicks on the images from another drone on his laptop.

The unit that Kotya is part of was made up of 23 soldiers, but at the end of autumn, the impact of an artillery shell left 17 comrades out of combat. One died and 16 suffered injuries that did not allow them to continue on the front. Until then, they alternated drone control work with reconnaissance expeditions, but they can no longer do them. “We have been waiting for the replacement for months. They told us that new colleagues would arrive, but, for the moment, no one else has appeared here,” says one of his colleagues, 25 years old and whose code name is Sova (cuckoo in Ukrainian).

Ukrainian soldiers Kotya and Sova with one of the dogs that lives with them on the Robotine front. Manuel Altozano

Fatigue and understaffing are behind a serious mistake Ukraine has made on this front in recent days. The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday that its soldiers had taken over an important building in Robotine. The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Oleksander Sirski, reacted by stating that some of the commanders had made “miscalculations” when “assessing the enemy” and promised to send more weapons, ammunition and personnel. “The problem is that brigade units that were exhausted fought that day, but now it has been solved,” explains the head of the special forces on the ground, who assures that the territory lost four days ago has been recovered.

This commander, however, does not hide his concern about the difficulty of replacing and rotating troops. “We need prepared people. We receive many young people who we ourselves are in charge of training,” he continues. “If you are defending yourself from the invader, it is essential that people can rest, because what they are experiencing is very hard,” he adds. “Our soldiers can do it, but they have fewer and fewer days off.”

Defend and do not attack. Leave the initiative to the aggressor. That’s what Ukraine does in Robotine and the rest of the front. The country has gone “from an offensive to a defensive operation,” in the words of Sirski, the army chief. He has to save ammunition while new supplies arrive. Avoid the loss of men as much as possible. Preserve their lives.