Crossing the death zone of the front to supply the Ukrainian defense

“It’s ours, don’t worry,” said another defender. Ten kilometers from the besieged city of Pokrovskthe silence seems to have died down. The earth vibrates under the impact of the projectiles. Igor holds his rifle and his eyes scan the leaden sky of Donbass. The delivery was complete. Now it’s time to go home: “This is the most dangerous thing for me,” says Sitka, driver of the 20th Independent Unmanned Systems Brigade K-2, calmly.

The most acute senses during travel are sight and hearing. The windows of car They never close completely. We must try to anticipate the mechanical noise of flying devices. A dog runs down a small dirt slope flanked by dilapidated houses. The lone animal skillfully avoids the vehicle.

THE anti-drone networks which cover the roads and trails of free Donetsk were left behind. There are still glimpses of the past concentrated in a courtesy sign wishing a “safe journey”. Further on, the skeleton of a car remains forgotten on a sort of shoulder.

Sitka, staring at the road and looking serious, doesn’t say a word. Neither does Igor in the back seat. The eyes of driver They continually land on the monitor which receives images from nearby drones and return to their route. The “no signal” message is not cleared from the device screen. It’s good. Does not detect nearby drones.

You must make a second stop before returning and today’s mission will be accomplished. “The best moment is when night and day almost touch. It doesn’t last long. The problem is that drones can now see very well at all times,” Sitka emphasizes.

The vehicle crosses roads with little asphalt on certain sections. In others, they are pure dirt and mud roads. It seems almost impossible that these roads can withstand speeds prohibited on certain highways. The scenes of daily life on the route are sometimes surreal: cows grazing quietly, tractors focused on harvesting and neighbors having coffee near a destroyed building. Life ends up winning out.

Tires and drones

The front is becoming automated with the massive deployment of drones and also ground robots. Even if the human factor remains essential to stop the invader. One of the advantages of the occupation troops is the number of troops. On the contrary, Ukraine suffers from a lack of soldiers to cover a contact line of more than 1,000 kilometers.

A few months after the fourth anniversary of the invasion, the conflict has left behind a large part of the traditional systems and now avant-garde devices, just as deadly, are multiplying. This is where the military pilots trying to avoid death kilometer by kilometer. The so-called annihilation zone is widening more and more towards a vague and dangerous rear.

Sitka and the hundreds of Ukrainian army drivers risk their lives almost daily to deliver supplies, evacuate wounded comrades in arms or rotate from the most critical positions. Replacements of soldiers on the front line take longer over time.

At the beginning of November, information was made public illustrating the reality of this war. Two soldiers from the 138th battalion of the Territorial Defense Forces, Alexander Tichaev And Alexander Alikseenko They spent 165 days in a row at the front. Infantry is traditionally the most dangerous profession; Today, with the scourge of drones and mines, drivers also find themselves in the prime positions of risk.

Vehicles of all types also contribute to the technological leap that is already defining new armed conflicts. The antennas to divert the drones protect the covers and the monitors which capture the images of the devices have their assigned place on the dashboard. This means of transport remains essential for logistics and constitutes a target for the enemy to shoot down.

The Commander’s Call

Setting the appropriate route to reach the position is the first task of any driver. Igor and Sitka mention several settlements that they know by heart. They reached an agreement when loading the drones which will support the last Ukrainian soldiers defending the city of Pokrovsk. There is a long journey ahead for the miles to go.

Sitka’s phone rings, it’s his battalion commander. “I respect him a lot. He always wants to be with the soldiers. He just called me to ask my mood today. Our brigade is very good,” he says proudly.

Once underway, the driver jokes that “it’s a tour” while Dua Lipa’s “Houdini” plays in the background. There is still room for calm before entering critical territory and meanwhile Rosalía’s last song sung in Ukrainian even sneaks in.

“The best part of my job is when I have a bowel movement. It is also the most dangerous. But when I can bring injured children to safety, then I can breathe,” says Sitka. The 36-year-old soldier has an enviable spirit for the circumstances and a lot of courage. “I once counted up to 19 FPV drones near me. One of them passed right by my car. Another time I saw on this monitor how one of our devices shot down a shahed and several times I saw my car on this screen. Until now, I have never been affected by these devices. “My parents protect me from heaven,” he admits.

Shortly after, the monitor captures a clear image of the immense Ukrainian countryside, not far of course from the road we are traveling on.

“Do you think it’s an enemy drone?” I ask.

“I don’t think so, it’ll be one of us,” he said, looking out of the corner of his eye.

The screen displays “no signal” again. We move forward and stop again. The soldiers at the position warn that they must wait. There are many Russian drones. When everything clears up a bit, Sitka will set foot on the metal again.

“Why did they die then?”

After almost four years of large-scale invasion, Kremlin troops have failed to completely capture the region of Donetsk. A province partially controlled by Moscow for a decade.

For more than fifteen months, the Russians have been trying to wrest Pokrovsk from Ukrainian control. The fall of this medium-sized city will be presented by Putin as proof that the war is tilted in his favor. However, this region’s belt of fortified cities – led by Slovianks and Kramatorsk – resists land and air assaults. And the soldiers don’t give up.

Russia is doing everything it can on the front to keep Washington away from kyiv. The fight is also taking place in the offices of foreign leaders, far from military control. Vladimir Putin He demands that Donetsk be handed over to him and Trump flirts with this idea. The North American president is once again directing pressure towards the invaded during the peace talks.

Bear And Andreidrivers of the 24th Mechanized Brigade, ask themselves: “Why did all our soldiers die then? All these deaths to end up delivering Donetsk? These drivers, a few days ago, saved the lives of several residents who remained near the destroyed town of Chassiv Yar.

Diplomacy is essential and headlines also make headlines. But this whirlwind of information seems far from Donetsk. Here the days are reduced to resisting with life against an insatiable invader.

Sitka leaves the positions with its supplies. Next stop is a small cafe on the way back. “I can never eat when I’m working,” he notes while ordering a coffee.

The mercury from the thermometer allows you to finish a cigarette on an improvised terrace. Calm is always elusive. The sound of a Shahed is invigorated. No one gets up until the glass is finished. Sitka turns on the car’s heater, turns up the music a little and admits that, perhaps, the drone captured by the monitor was indeed an enemy.