In every modern war there has been a moment when technology brutally shortened the distance between the front and death. In fact, it already happened with the machine gun in 1914 or with the precision artillery at the end of the 20th century. In Ukraine, everything indicates that is going through now that same turning point, one in which the combat stops being deep and maneuverable and becomes immediate, constant and suffocating.
Drones as a dominant weapon. The figures from the Ukrainian war have made it crystal clear that drones are no longer a complement, but the main cause of death and destruction, responsible for between 70% and 80% of casualties on both sides according to European intelligence services.
This massive lethality has transformed the conflict into something very more dynamic at a tactical levelbut also more rigid strategically, because the omnipresence of drones makes it extremely difficult for either army to achieve a decisive break from the front. The result is a war of attrition in which each meter is paid dearly and where the balance increasingly depends on industrial, technological and foreign political support.
War underfoot. In this context, Ukrainian drones are operating at distances that just a year ago would have seemed absurd, attacking Russian infantry at just over one kilometer from the frontliterally and as rthey knew the controls in Insider, “under the feet” of their own positions.
The use of elite drone units to strike so close reflects the extreme pressure on defensive lines and the need to stop Russian assaults before they reach the trenches, one of the deadliest scenarios for Ukrainian soldiers. Low-level air warfare has thus become a direct extension of hand-to-hand combat, with drones acting as the last barrier before human contact.
Kamikaze combat. It is a war, and the doctrinal ideal is still to destroy the enemy several kilometers away, when it concentrates or prepares to attack, but the reality of the front has pushed Ukraine to use its best operators in immediate deletion tasks.
More and more combat drones are dedicated to attack infantry instead of high-value logistics or systems, a very clear sign that combat has become shortermore reactive and closer to sacrifice. This drift towards an almost kamikaze logic does not respond to a tactical preference, but to the urgent need to save positions and gain time.
Russia adapts. At the same time and as we have countedRussia has been closing the gap in drone warfare from the end of 2024adapting quickly and betting on mass productionand the recruitment of technical talent.
The plans to manufacture tens of thousands of drones per year and active search for students with technological profiles show that Moscow assumes that mastery of the air at very low altitude is key to sustaining its ground offensive. This adaptation explains why the front has become so lethal and compressed, with both sides forced to operate under a constant threat from the sky.
A question of distance. As the 20th century progressed, military evolution was marked by the elongation of the battlefield: improvements in aviation, missiles and precision weapons They allowed the enemy to be hit further and further away, reducing the need for direct contact.
However, the war in Ukraine is reversing that logicbecause drones, cheap and everywhere, have compressed combat to unimaginable distances. The result is another historical paradox: there has never been so much capacity to destroy at long range, but it has never been so dangerous to be so close to the frontwith flying machines that turn every advanced meter into an immediate risk.
War blocked by technology. In short, the enormous effectiveness of drones is making war, if possible, a little bloodieralthough less decisive. The saturation of the battlefield with sensors and flying munitions punishes any movement and reduces strategic maneuver options, turning the conflict into a protracted fight where industrial resistance and western support They outweigh local tactical victories.
In this scenario, Ukraine fights ever closer, ever faster and, most disturbing of all, increasingly with less margin of errorin a battle where the distance between living and dying is already measured in seconds and meters.
Image | Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, National Police of Ukraine
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