KHARKIV REGION, Ukraine (AP) — Through the grainy gray-and-white haze of thermal images streamed from a drone, Ukrainian pilots watch the roads that keep Russian forces supplied, hunting for targets with a fleet of midrange drones that is reshaping the battlefield.
In a basement command post in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, hundreds of kilometers from the drone over Russian-held territory, pilots wait for movement. When a vehicle appears, they will nudge the controller, sending the aircraft diving toward its target to disrupt Russian supplies deep behind the front.
"Our mission is to cut logistics," said Kat, commander of Ukraine's K-2 brigade, which fires midrange drones. "Cut off their supply lines, and the infantry on the front line have no food, no ammunition, no night vision, no batteries. Nothing. That's how we're wearing them down in every sense."
Soldiers spoke to The ***** ociated Press on condition their call signs and not real names be used, in line with military regulations.
By repeatedly striking the highways that carry fuel, ammunition and reinforcements, Ukrainian commanders say they have made logistics slower, costlier and far less predictable, helping stall Russian advances and enabling Ukrainian counterattacks and strikes into illegally annexed Crimea to isolate the peninsula from the mainland.