BBC News
The cross fragrance hangs through the city of Rodinska. A few minutes after we drive to town, we see where it comes from.
The near 250 kilogram of Glide Bomb has torn the main administrative building of the city and collapsed three housing blocks. We visit the day after it was hit by a bomb, but parts of the wreck still smoke. From the edges of the city, we hear the sound of artillery fire and shootings – Ukrainian soldiers shoot the lower drones.
Rodinske is about 15km (8 miles) north of the empathy of the city of the Cover. Russia tried to catch him in the south of the south of the fall last year, but the Ukrainian forces have so far managed to stop Russian soldiers to enter marching.
Thus, Russia changed tactics, instead moving into the city, cut off the supply routes.
In the last two weeks, because the hectic diplomatic efforts to make a truce in Ukraine failed, Russia has strengthened its pressure, which has achieved the most significant progress since January.
We discover that in Restin.
Within a few minutes we arrive in town, we hear the Russian drone above us. Our team works until the nearest order – a tree.
Getti imagesWe press against it, so drone will not see us. Then the sound is a loud explosion – it’s another shot nearby. The drone above us still floats. For a few more minutes, we hear the scary joints that became the deadliest weapons of this war.
When we can no longer hear that, take the opportunity to run to a hard cover in an abandoned building of 100ft.
From the shelter, we hear the drone again. It is possible to return after you see our movement.
It rodin cursed by Russian drons is evidence that they attack come with positions much closer than famous Russian positions south of the cover. They are most likely to come from a newborn territory on a key road moving with east of the cover in costiatin.
After half an hour of waiting in the shelter, when we can no longer hear the drives, quickly move into our car parked under the wood cover and accelerates from Rodina. On the side of the highway, we see the smoke to catch and something burning – it’s most likely down drone.
We drive to Bilitese, away from the front. We see a series of houses destroyed by rockets overnight. One of them was a sweaty house.
“It’s getting worse and upstairs, we’ve heard distant explosions, but now our city is aimed – we are a 61-year-old, while 61-year-old, while the 61-year-old, while she has a few things. Fortunately, Svitlan was not at home when the attack took place.
“Enter the city center, you will see so much that it was destroyed and the bakers and the zoo were destroyed,” she says.
On SafeHouse just out of reach of a drone, we introduce the soldiers of the artillery unit 5. Assault brigades.
“You can feel the intensity of Russian attacks. Rockets, mortars, drones, use everything they have to cut off the supply routes go to the city,” says Serhii.
His unit was waiting for three days to arrange to his positions, waiting for the cover of the clouds or the winds of high speed to give them a drone protection.
In a comprehensive conflict, the soldiers had to adapt quickly with new threats that represent a change in technology. And the latest threat comes from optical fibers. Coil tens of a kilometer cable is set to the bottom of the drone, and the physical optical cable is connected to the controller running a pilot.
“Video and control signal is also transmitted from the drone through the cable, not via radio frequencies. This means that it cannot be stuck with electronic interceptors,” says a soldier with a moderator, a spotless engineer with 68. Jaerur Brigade.
When in this war, in this war, they be used in this war, both military funds set their vehicles with electronic warfare systems, which could neutralize nonsense. This protection paired the arrival of optical drone fibers and in the distribution of these devices, Russia currently has the edge. Ukraine is trying to grow production.
“Russia started using optical drugs much, while we still test them. These are in places where we have to go lower than the usual drones,” we can searches in the interior, “says Venia, drone pilot with 68. Jaeger.
“We started joking that we should wear scissors to cut the cable,” said Serhii, artillery man.
Optical fibers have deficiencies – the slower and the cable can be tucked into the trees. But at this point, their widespread use of Russia means that the transport of soldiers and from their positions can often be dead than the battlefield.
“When you get into position, you don’t know if you are noticed or not. And if you are noticed, you may already live last hours of your life,” Oles, General, General Scout Unit 5. Assault Brigade.
This threat means that soldiers spend longer and longer in their positions.
Oles and his men are in infantry, serving in the trenches right at the very present defense of Ukraine. It is rare for journalists to talk to the forestry these days, because it has become too risky to go to these trenches. We get to know Oles and Maxim in a rural house turned into an Improvised base base, where soldiers rest when not deployed.
“The longest thing I spent on position was about 31, but I know they spent 90, and as many as 120 days. Back before the drone, rotations could be between 3 or 7 days in position,” Maxim says.
“The war is blood, death, wet mud and cold to be fifth. And I remember that not three days that we are sleeping, and we will keep in the American wave after the wave. Even a little smaller smaller.
Oles says Russian infantry changed tactics. “They attacked in groups before. Now they sometimes send one or two people. They also use motorcycles in several cases, fourfold bikes. Sometimes they pass.”
What this means that the front lines are more conventional line with Ukrainians on the one hand and Russians on the second, but prefer pieces on chessboard during the game, where positions can be intertwined.
This also makes it difficult to see progress on both sides.
Despite recent gains of Russia, it will not be fast or easy to take over the entire region of Donetsky, where the cover is lies.
Ukraine pushed hard before, but it needs a constant supply to weapons and ammunition to maintain a struggle.
And as the war enters the fourth summer, there are also obvious problems from the workforce of Ukraine against a much larger Russian army. Most soldiers we met joined the army after the beginning of the war. They had several months of training, but they had to learn a lot to work in the middle of a raging war.
Maxim worked for a drink company before joining the army. I asked how his family was doing business with her job.
“It’s hard, it’s really hard. My family really supports me, and I don’t have to see him, so it’s okay,” he’s nearby that it’s in circumstances, “he’s close to it in circumstances.
Maksim is a soldier fighting for his country, but he is just a father who disappeared his two-year-old.
Additional Reporting Imogen Anderson, Sanjai Gangli, Volodimir Lozhko and Anastasia Levchenko
