Drones dominate Ukraine battlefield four years into fighting

Ukrainian tank platoon commander Valentyn Bohdanov remembers a time earlier in Russia's war when heavy armour fought pitched battles like boxers trading punches in the ring.

- Valentyn Bohdanov

Valentyn Bohdanov

Four years into the conflict, he says such showdowns are all but impossible. Small but deadly "first-person-view" drones now dominate the skies above Ukraine's battlefields, making it extremely risky for armoured vehicles to move, said Bohdanov, a senior sergeant in Ukraine's 127th Separate Heavy Mechanised Kharkiv Brigade. "They won't enter an open field: they'll be peppered by FPV drones and stronger ones," said the 36-year-old, who goes by the military call sign "Bodia". These days, his T-72 tank, which was captured from the Russians, remains hidden beneath webbing near the snowy frontline in the northeast region of Kharkiv — reduced, effectively, to a static piece of artillery.

Bohdanov, who has served since early in Moscow's February 2022 invasion, has seen traditional military tactics upended as technology has forced both sides to make new battlefield calculations. Thousands of precision drones, often costing only several hundred dollars apiece, roam the skies daily across an expanding "kill zone" along the 1,200-km front. They are joined by a growing range of more powerful drones capable of flying farther and carrying heavier payloads.