High-tech drones turn Ukraine’s front line into a deadly kill zone, complicating evacuations
In Eastern Ukraine, silent nights in the dim corridors of a front line medical pole can be disintegrated. Medics met another stretcher. Donetsk Front.
Urgently until the soldier came too late – chest compressions and shouting commands – they work. While the body is sealed in a white bag, the room falls quietly.
The anesthesiologist could not be saved, because the release took too long. When he reached the stabilization point, he was already dead.
This is not an isolated situation, but part of a wider change in the war Where medical evacuation is becoming increasingly difficult.
“Because drone … This can reach away, for the danger of the wounded for themselves and now to take them out to take out the crew, ”says 108.
In the first months of Russia’s full -scale invasion, evacuation vehicles are almost on the front frontIt gives the wounded a better survival.
Now, the heavy use of the first -person vision (FPV) drones that allowed an operator to see the target before hitting, has turned into an area of up to 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the front. Medical officials say they haven’t treated firearm wounds for months and most injuries come from FPVs.
Drones are the most feared weapon to reduce the chance of survival for those who have already wounded by complexing both sensitivities and evacuation.
For Ukraine’s number of more army, it makes it even more difficult to maintain this crew.
DISCUSSIONS IN THE KILLING ZONE
Call Sign Buhor and 59th Brigade Medical Unit Commander, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for security reasons, said that the increasing use of the FPVs made the scores of the wounded even more difficult.
“Everything gets harder – the job needs to be more active, the way we work changes and the level of security change,” he said.
When asked whether these conditions increase mortality among the wounded, “Importantly. There is nothing you can do. Everything is burning from these FPVs – everything, even tanks.”
He explained that ammunition was accused of a rocket -guided hand grenade, a shoulder -fuel gun that launched an explosive designed to drill armored vehicles. When exploding, a melted metal jet and parts penetrate the cabinet at extreme temperatures. The effect can cause everything from small cuts and burns to severe wounds, including amputations, depending on where the parts hit and dimensions.
Buhor, self-help and evacuation is largely emphasized during training, but the presence of the killing zone may be stuck in the position for days or weeks-if a wound does not immediately threaten a life.
Walk to security
When Artem Fursov came to the stabilization pole with three soldiers late one night, Buhor examined his wounds and praised the bandage in his arm and asked who he was doing. Buhor said that this was a soldier’s work and an effective self -help example.
Fursov, 38, was injured with an explosive falling from a drone on August 4, but did not reach a medical pole until five days later. He had to walk a few kilometers to reach security. A small wooden cross he wore under his clothes is now hanging against his chest.
In You can’t even lift your head there. This is a robot war, ”he said on the front. “And the Russians sound like their own backyard.”
Valentyn Pidvalnyi, a 25 -year -old attack soldier injured by Shrapnel, said that a month was easier to survive as an infantry one day in 2022 positions.
“This is a very difficult sector,” he said, “But if you do not destroy them, they will take the tree line, then the town, then the whole region.”
Forced to continue to move
Buhor has worked in the Pokrovsk region since the end of 2022. When the troops are forced to retreat, the stability points should also move. In the last two and a half years, Buhor and his team have moved 17 times.
They left their previous places to the sound of FPV drones.
Other stabilization points face the same situation.
Boliko, a medical service of “Ulf”, remembers that the stabilization point is still in Pokrovsk – still in winter – he still has armed wounds. This meant that there was a more direct contact between the first defense line on both sides.
After months, the situation changed dramatically.
They try to protect themselves as much as possible – limiting the movement, using camouflage, equipping all vehicles with electronic war systems. Evacuation teams go out only in body armor and helmets.
“We are trying to protect both ourselves and the wounded, we do everything we can to keep our position as long as possible.
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Associated Press reporters Vasilisa Stepanenko, Evgeniy Maloletka and Dmytro Zhyhinas and Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
