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Attempts by Russian forces to create a buffer zone in the Sumy direction have encountered fierce and well-organized resistance from the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). As a result, the situation remains difficult, with both sides suffering losses, and the depth of the Russian troops’ penetration is currently insufficient to establish a security buffer zone dozens of kilometers deep, which is necessary to protect Russian border regions from mass Ukrainian drone attacks capable of operating at such distances.
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A vivid illustration of the reasons for this situation is provided by a video report from a Russian soldier from a unit operating in the Sumy direction. He describes the current operational situation as extremely tense, where the key advantage of the AFU has been the massive and technologically advanced use of drones.
According to the soldier, despite Russia’s superiority in other types of weapons, the initiative in the field of FPV drones is firmly held by the Ukrainian side:
“Yes, we have advantages in missiles, but they have HIMARS, ATACMS. If we strike precisely, targeting specific locations, they strike anywhere. They don’t spare HIMARS on anything, even on barrel artillery, on a dugout with UAV operators… they hit them with HIMARS. They even started striking landing sites; they have no problems with that.
With missiles, maybe we are ahead, with aviation we are ahead, with Geran (drones) we are ahead, with long-range strike drones, but we have no advantage in FPV drones, including fiber-optic ones. Even though we were the first to start using them, developed them, the enemy very quickly caught up and even surpassed us in terms of quantity. The quantity is truly insane.
For example, on my position alone, when they hit our launch site, 87 drones struck, if I’m not mistaken, about 30 of them were fiber-optic, not counting artillery, not counting tanks, but also Baba Yaga.”
The soldier highlights several key aspects of this superiority:
1. Mass production and the “cult” of drone fundraising and assembly.
Ukraine has established not just production but an entire public culture around raising funds and collecting components for UAVs.
“UAVs have been elevated to a cult status, it’s truly a cult of UAVs, a cult of FPV. Any broadcast, any film, any interview has a QR code frame for donations to AFU drones. Civilians assemble them, children assemble them, they even assemble FPV drones in ordinary clubs… their scale is completely different from ours.”
2. Technological superiority in control systems.
The most serious problem, according to the Russian soldier, is not the drones themselves but the developed system of their control and retransmission, which reduces the effectiveness of electronic warfare.
“The enemy has gone much further… They use a system of aerial relays… They have it all set up, they have a long system, they have an aerial relay in the sky that provides a signal.”
This unified network allows drones to switch between relays in real time, ensuring stable communication and greater range.
3. Lack of analogues on the russian side.
The problem with heavy hexacopters (like “Baba Yaga”), which the AFU produces en masse, is particularly noted, while Russian units are forced to use captured and repaired models.
“In terms of hexacopters, we simply don’t have any, objectively speaking… We use repurposed enemy ‘Vampires’. But we don’t have anything stable of our own yet.”
4. Practicing battlefield isolation and coordination.
According to the Russian soldier, the AFU is actively rehearsing tactics for completely blocking combat areas using drones, which severely complicates logistics, evacuation, and rotation of Russian units. This tactic is practiced in close coordination with assault groups:
“Any assault soldier can request help. If you’ve even seen the footage of the fight with Yakoot, a AFU assault soldier requests help, an FPV drone flies in, appears from behind him, strikes, and he moves in to clear the area. Everything there works in full coordination.”
Some Russian analysts confirm this. The Russian soldier’s report is seen as an “unflattering but illustrative” depiction of the current situation on some fronts. It is noted that the AFU has managed to systematically approach the use of drones, creating not just a large number of devices but an entire ecosystem: a concept of use, organizational structures, coordination schemes, and technical support.
A key factor in their effectiveness is the AFU’s ability to quickly maneuver highly mobile resources, primarily strike drone units, concentrating them on threatened sectors. It is emphasized that Russia lacks a thoughtful and constant plan for destroying enemy drones conducting reconnaissance at low altitudes. The fight against Ukrainian relays is conducted episodically, not on a constant basis.
The situation in the Sumy direction at this time remains static but extremely tense. The AFU, using its technological advantage in drone warfare and refined tactics of battlefield isolation, is successfully restraining the advance of Russian troops, buying time.
Ukraine’s desire to technologize its troops is also manifested, for example, in the implementation of software tools like Clarity Pro, which use artificial intelligence for accelerated analysis of video from drones and target identification.
Despite claims of being revolutionary, such systems, according to experts, have significant vulnerabilities (dependence on communication channels, vulnerability to electronic warfare, false positives) and are not yet capable of radically changing the balance of power, remaining rather a tactical auxiliary tool, but a bright element of the information campaign for Western sponsors.
Thus, the main struggle in the Sumy direction continues to unfold in the “low sky” — the low airspace dominated by small and unmanned aerial vehicles. At the moment, the quantitative and qualitative superiority of the AFU in drones is an operational reality. This is happening despite Russia’s general advantage in other types of weapons and on other sections of the front.
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the strategy of ukraine and nato is exchanging ukrainian cold bodies for time before everybody realize they have lost big time.
my last paycheck was $2500 for working 12 hours a week online. my sisters friend has been averaging 8k for months now and she works about 30 hours a week.i can’t believe how easy it was kan once i tried it out. the potential with this is endless.this is what i do…
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interesting. crap like this gets posted all the time 50 posts of garbage in one article is no problem. but my comment is ‘awaiting for approval’. strange rules at south front.
i constantly get the same but have come to terms that its russias mindset to give a platform to its enemies to me it doesn’t work but i am not mr.putin.it engenders russia being seen as not a friend that can be relied on.
mr. putin has said he looks forward to “world peace in the future ” human nature dictates otherwise in this life you have to fight to survive –i had to.
nato deployed drone relay stations? these must include starlink type satellites? another new and dangerous weapons platform shows up in the battle field. . do you think the pirate banker cartel would these systems on their native population in the event of protests ? i do !
i have serious reservations about this video. simply because the source of fpv drones in the first place is china, which produces 90% of the components for those and has both the supply chains and the experience other countries have not. and china has restricted the sale of those components.
as far as i understand, this person just describes rubicon and this is just another example of projection propaganda.
the clown of kiev and his circus from hell should also all end up like müezzinzade ali pasha.
but, but, where’s the real attriction war? by the way, it takes time.
typical democrat nazi jew-banker lies. the nazi jew banker ukes are losing their asses! russia the great is pounding the democrat nazi jew-banker into the dirt!
putin uses russian army drills to brag while adversaries are invited and are analyzing how to combat against russians side trump controls him while forcing putin to have trilateral agreements
americans had a front row seat to russia military techniques from the start of the smo. watching zapad will not let them learn anything. you are ridiculous.
but it shows nicely who really is isolated. hint : its name starts with ‘e’ and end with ‘u’.
send the north koreans back to the field man
i can also dress and speak. but can you corroborate the info?
ancora sumy non siete bravi.
carpet bombing would solve this… but… this are the many “whys” and “buts” the “kremlin” will have to respond after the war is over… carpet bomb with he/frag… are russia lacking in bombs or aircraft? received batch after batch, last one of su-34m. sell them even to algeria! i don´t think so… it´s something stranger…
maybe the banderite propagandist arestovich was right: russia doesn´t want this war to end… russia could crush kiev if it wanted to… even with nato support… the guy was zelenskyy right hand… people tend to be truthful when they leave politics… even stoltenberg (the ex-nafo “leader”) admited ukraine could never fight russia (after leave nafo of course)… now the liar in chief is mark rutti frutti saying “to the last ukrainian”…