A WAR OF INCHES

The conflict between Kyiv and Moscow has become one of attrition, analysts say, with both sides paying a high price for small gains

- BY ELLIE COOK

LOOKING UP ABOVE UKRAINE'S SNAKING FRONT LINES, HIGH ALTITUDE drones zip toward faraway targets while others hover lower—some buzzing right above the heads of soldiers on the contact line, searching for the next target.

“In general, there is constant activity in the air almost everywhere,” says one Ukrainian soldier currently fighting on the front line. He declined to provide his name or any details about where is deployed in the battle against Russian troops, as he was not authorized to speak.

Real-life Star Wars, he remarks, is “unfolding right now.”

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, have arguably become the best-known characteristic of the now four-year-long Russia-Ukraine war. UAVs are responsible for 80 percent of Ukrainian strikes on Russian targets, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this year. Most of these drones are produced by sites inside the war-torn country, with factories working flat out to keep soldiers supplied.

UAVs occupy a central part of Ukraine's strategy—indeed, Kyiv’s fresh-faced new defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, is a former drone czar. On land, in and on the water plus in the air, Ukraine has developed them all, and, for the most part, Russia has never been far behind.

Yet the front lines weaving through eastern and southern Ukraine are, following Russia's initial incursion, largely stuck. They have barely moved for years now, chewing up lives and vast stocks of military equipment for incremental Russian territorial gains.