Soldiers in the Donbas resist despite relentless Russian drone attacks – Technologist

Without ever losing his smile, captain “Sid,” deputy commander of the 1^st battalion of the 5^th assault brigade, made no secret of the challenges his fighters have been facing since the Russian army’s new surge in the Donbas. “The sky is filled with drones, day and night. It’s no longer trench warfare. Now we’re basically buried and only come out of our shelters to fight back Russian assaults,” said the Ukrainian officer who, like other interviewees, is identified by his nom de guerre. “We only rotate two men at a time. Movement has become impossible.”

In the first week of May, the situation was the same near both the Chassiv Yar front with the 5^th assault brigade and the Avdiivka front with the 24^th airborne brigade. In addition to its conquests of Bakhmut in 2023 and Avdiivka this year, the Russian army has persistently regained the initiative. The Ukrainian government, which laments the far too slow pace of arms deliveries from allied countries, has been hammering this point home in recent months. This breaks from their traditional communication efforts aimed at maintaining the country’s morale.

Infantry private “Pilot” recently returned from five days on the front line. “The position is better protected than it used to be,” he explained. Before 2024, Ukrainian forces hardly fortified their defensive lines, unlike the Russian army, known for building properly buried fortifications. “More than being there and fighting, the most dangerous thing is actually getting there and back,” Pilot continued. “Rocket and drone attacks are relentless.”

“Chechen,” so named “because of my beard and dark skin, with no Caucasian origins,” explained the soldier, who had also just returned from six days’ combat. A highly experienced combatant, he was not impressed by the Russian forces’ pressure around Chassiv Yar. “The situation is more or less business as usual. Their drones fire stuff at us and we hold the line…”

‘Once they’re on the front line, they adapt’

Sid called Chechen “one of the 1^st battalion’s best fighters.” The soldier said he “shares [his] experience with newly mobilized recruits.” The captain recognized that, compared with the volunteers who joined two years ago, “there aren’t many highly motivated people left” in Ukrainian society. According to him, “some come not trusting command,” afraid of being sacrificed for a village in the Donbas they’ve never heard of. However, he claims to be able to “turn them into combatants in two or three weeks.”

“Tykhi” and “Alabay,” two soldiers from the “mortar group,” also noted that “the newcomers are probably not as motivated as the first wave volunteers,” but Tykhi pointed out that “once they’re on the front line, they adapt. And there’s no divide between the old and the new.”

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