HOW RUSSIA'S INVASION OF UKRAINE IS SHAPING WAR IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Ukraine's war reveals how drones, data, and AI—not tanks—are redefining 21st-century warfare.

- JOHN DOBSON

The Dnipro Delta, located in southern Ukraine where the Dnipro River meets the Black Sea, is a rich and diverse wetland ecosystem, consisting of a complex network of channels, lakes, reed beds, marshes and islands.

The delta is an important bird migration stopover and breeding ground, a haven for ornithologists. Nowadays, it’s a haven for Russian military corpses. Since Ukrainian forces liberated the southern city of Kherson in November 2022, the Dnipro River to the south of the city has become a de facto front-line in the war, one of the most perilous battlefields of the conflict. It’s here that some units of Russia’s 98" Airborne Division, alongside marines from the 61* Separate Brigade, are known to be operating on a number of islands that litter the area. Supplying and rotating these forces has become a nightmare for the Russian Command, as in the low-lying area surrounded by water their troops are exposed and vulnerable to Ukrainian drones.

Since January this year, some 5,100 Russians have been killed by Ukrainian drones in the Dnipro Delta alone, according to Ukrainian intelligence, their bodies spread over a wide area. Chilling footage taken by the Ukrainians shows Russian soldiers wrapping themselves in vegetation, trying to avoid detection by drones as they try to flee the death zone in tiny dinghies. Others, cloaked in makeshift camouflage made of reeds and mud, are seen lying low in the water, hoping the narrow channels will conceal their escape back to towards Russian occupied territory. But Ukrainian drones are tracking their every move. Doomed Russian soldiers hear the ominous buzz of suicide drones before they swoop on their boats and detonate, instantly killing everyone onboard.