It has been redefining on the battlefield for more than four years. First there were the small FPV devices that They changed the way of fighting in the trenches. Then came long-range attacks against airfields, refineries and military infrastructure inside Russia.
Now, Ukraine has opened a new front. And it has done so in a strip of the battlefield that until recently Moscow considered relatively safe.
According to Ukrainian military officials, kyiv forces They are using a new generation of fixed-wing drones capable of attacking targets located between about 20 and 300 kilometers from the front line, a range that until now has largely been left out of the focus of operations.
The new war for the “intermediate zone”
Taras Berezovets, head of military cooperation for the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces, explained this week during a drone summit in Latvia that the fight has moved to a new strategic distance.
“Now we are fighting for the middle zone,” he said.
That strip, especially between 50 and 150 kilometers deepis where Russia had installed a good part of its warehouses, logistics centers, supply vehicles and command posts, convinced that they were out of reach of most Ukrainian attacks.
That perception is changing rapidly.
A rearguard that is no longer safe
The Ukrainian military official assured that this new capability is having a double effect. On the one hand, allows hitting key infrastructures to sustain Russian operations on the front.
On the other hand, it introduces an important psychological factor. “The area they considered safe is now a new killing zone“Berezovets explained.
The immediate consequence is that Russia is forced to move its logistics centers and supply depots further back, increasing distances and complicating the supply of troops deployed on the front line.
A growing problem for Moscow
Modern warfare depends enormously on logistics. Ammunition, fuel, spare parts, vehicles and communication systems They need to constantly reach units deployed on the ground.
When those routes become vulnerable, the impact can be as significant as the direct destruction of military targets. The new Ukrainian drones appear to be designed precisely to exploit that weakness.
By attacking warehouses, transportation hubs, convoys and command posts located far from the trenches, they force Russia to redistribute resources and dedicate more resources to protecting areas that until recently it considered out of danger.
Drone warfare continues to evolve
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has become the largest military laboratory in the world for the development of unmanned systems.
Each new innovation generates a response from the adversary and forces tactics that seemed consolidated just a few months before to be modified. In this context, The appearance of these medium-range drones represents a new challenge for Moscow. It’s not just about destroying targets.
It is about making the feeling of security disappear in the rear. And, according to Ukraine, that is already starting to happen.
