'Swarms' of drones enforce Ukraine's Kursk retreat

Troops outnumbered by as much as six to one on the battlefield, the main supply route cut off, swarms of drones attacking vehicles, and soldiers retreating across the border to Ukraine. That is the picture painted by a senior Ukrainian army officer as Kyiv’s forces are pushed back from their foothold in Russia’s Kursk by Vladimir Putin’s troops.

- ASKOLD KRUSHELNYCKY

Russian forces, with the help of thousands of North Korean troops, have been upping the pressure on Ukraine’s ranks for the last two weeks – as Kyiv looks to hang onto the land it audaciously seized last summer.

The colonel, with connections to the general staff of Ukraine’s army – who has not been named in order for him to speak to The Independent freely – said that his country’s troops were outnumbered by three to one at a minimum, but that became six to one in some areas.

He added that the number of drones used by the Russians to target soldiers had grown in recent weeks. “Huge swarms of Russian drones hover above the main retreat route for the Ukrainians,” he said. “They are being operated by more skilled Russian drone pilots than we’ve seen previously, especially FPV [first person view] pilots.

“So Ukrainian armoured vehicles, thin-skinned vehicles like pickups and ambulances, artillery and other equipment are having to run a relentless gauntlet as they head south towards the Ukrainian border.”

He said that withdrawing vehicles make easy targets in daytime – less so at night – although Russian drones with night vision or heat-seeking systems can still pinpoint Ukrainian targets.