Drones, mines and snipers: Ukraine's frontline is a world away from peace negotiations

Chased by drones, stalked by snipers and surrounded by minefields, soldiers fighting in Ukraine do not even risk concentration.

That's why Colonel Dmytro Palisa, commander of the 33rd Mechanical Brigade of Ukraine, directed his soldiers to ignore speculation about a possible ceasefire.

“They started to relax, began to think, put on rose glasses and thought tomorrow would be easier. No.” “We shoot until we get the order to stop.”

Russia and Ukraine fought as bloody as any war as any war was fought. The fierce battle torn on the Ukrainian front is in some way a late land and leverage that the Trump administration says is making progress.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believes Russia intends to launch a new offensive operation “to put the greatest pressure on Ukraine and then send the last pass from the dominant location”, as he said last week.

Kyiv wants to deny Moscow's advantage.

The Ukrainian troops still exceed and exceed the number of people, just as Russia has since launched a full-scale invasion three years ago. But they have greatly paused Russia's progress so far this year and are now launching a localized counterattack to capture the land.

Military analysts tracking the development of the battlefield confirmed that Russia's progress has stalled significantly even as Moscow troops continue to launch attacks along key parts of the frontline.

“This war has been changing the rules”

In the interviews on the front, the resilience figures of Ukrainian soldiers and military leaders: new defensive strategies that more fully integrate drones, rapidly adapt to the threat of transfer, signs of Russian fatigue and improving morale under the new commander of the new force, Mykhailo Drapatyi.

“This war has been changing the rules,” Colonel Palisa said. “This means we have to adapt constantly. Every night, before going to bed, we already have to plan alternative strategies for tomorrow.”

Ukraine retreated from much of Russia's Kursk region earlier this month, hoping to reshape the battle again. The seven-month movement of Moscow's seven-month movement to regain Russian land can now be redeployed.

Colonel Oleh Hrudzevych, deputy commander of the 43rd Mechanical Brigade of Ukraine, said the Kursk movement “had indeed taken away important parts of the enemy” and carried out firepower from other areas on the front line.

He said, for example, despite the battle in Kursk, the number of air bombs (one of Russia's most effective weapons) dropped by 50% in the Kupiansk area on the northern edge of the eastern northern tip where he deployed.

He said Russian troops were limited to “mosquito bites” tactics – small attacks that usually ended in failure. But he hopes that Russia may now redirect some troops to his area.

Captain Yuri Fedorenko, commander of the 429th Achilles Unmanned Systems Regiment, said the main task along the northeast was to prevent the Russian army from expanding its small foothold on the Oskil River.

Due to the threat posed by Ukrainian drones and artillery, the pontoon bridge was unable to be built, and Russian troops have been using boats to ferries and equipment on the river under the cover of bad weather.

Captain Fedorenko said Russian units have failed to expand their position in the past month and continue to pay a heavy price to hold the land they own.

“We went through a drone overpass about 200 meters long and quite narrow,” he said. “In that tree line alone, we counted about 190 enemies' bodies.”

The Ukrainian military shared drone videos with the New York Times usually support his account. However, it is impossible to independently verify the number of Russian soldiers killed or injured, or to measure Ukrainian losses during the same period.

Hundreds of miles away, on both sides of the Dnipro River in the Southern Front, Russian troops are looking for weakness in the Ukrainian line.

The soldiers said two months ago, Russian troops launched a series of cross-raids – using about 15 to 20 ships, but efforts failed.

Now, the Russian military is launching a detection attack, trying to drive north along the river toward the city of Zaporizhzhia under Ukraine. President Vladimir V. Putin and other Russian officials have publicly stated that their goal is to fully control the city and surrounding areas.

However, their plans to surround Zaporizhzhia were put on hold when Russian troops were redirected to Kusk. Andrii Klymenko has been fighting in the area for many months. His claims were supported by analysts tracking Russian military movements.

“Now they're just going to restore it,” he said.

“Crazy Max” aesthetic

The fiercest battles continued to focus on the rolling hills, destroying industrial cities in the eastern Donbas region, and three years later, Russia failed to control two coveted targets: the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Colonel Palisa oversees Ukrainian defense south of the Donetsk city of Pokrovsk, and Russian offensive operations have made great progress last year.

But Colonel Palisa said aggressive drone warfare and clever defensive tactics currently devalue Russia's advantage. “In the past three to four weeks, the enemy has not upgraded a meter in the field,” he noted. “As of now, we can say we have stabilized this situation.”

At the same time, his troops had to adapt to the growing threat: the spread of Russian drones was tied to cables on ultra-thin fibers, keeping them safe from electron blockage.

“We can still move around when they don't have fiber elements,” he said. He said his brigade lost about 10 vehicles in just seven days after the fiber drone appeared.

“It made me realize that we had to completely change our approach and give up on the vehicle altogether,” he said.

Like their Russian counterparts, Ukrainian soldiers now often use four-wheeled bikes and off-road bikes or walks. They often wear cloaks to cover up soldiers’ hot signatures from drones equipped with thermal vision cameras.

Boats have been rowed on the critical supply road, a simple but effective defense, Colonel Palisa said successful enemy attacks reduced more than half of the attacks. Nowadays, soldiers often carry shotguns and their assault rifles.

As tanks and armored vehicles are mixed with civilian cars, motorcycles and four-wheeled bikes, fused with cages and jammers, it makes for a “mad Max” aesthetic.

With low-tech adaptation and extensive reorganization of the military, Kiev hopes to enable Ukraine to continue fighting – even its main military allies, the United States, has backed back on support, repeating the Kremlin narrative increasingly, and putting pressure on Ukraine and putting pressure on Ukraine.

On the front line, any talk about lasting peace still feels like a dangerous fantasy.

The soldiers said they believed the battle would continue until the war became so expensive that the Kremlin could not bear it, and that Ukraine's strength was enough to stop future aggression.

“We are fighting for the right to survive,” Captain Fedorenko said. “Americans must understand that this is not about putting pressure on Ukraine, to impose a certain abstract peace. This is impossible because Ukraine did not launch this war.”

Olha Konovalova Reports from eastern and southern Ukraine.