Russian troops have significantly stepped up assault operations in the Vuhledar direction (Donetsk region) and actively utilizing night FPV drones, according to an aerial scout from the 58th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade named after Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky, speaking to Kyiv Post on condition of anonymity.
"Almost daily assaults, the enemy has intensified the direction, they (Russian troops) are very actively pressing. They have added units, they are assaulting more actively and stronger," said the soldier.
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On Sunday, March 10, the brigade released a video of the repulse of an attack by a convoy of Russian vehicles.
The published footage showcased the advance of a Russian attack convoy: the first vehicle in the convoy, probably a tank, hits a mine barrier, explodes, and catches fire. Meanwhile, the rest of the convoy after landing the infantry cannot pass around the tank. Most likely, the Russians were afraid of running into the same minefields.
Next, the video demonstrated how Ukrainian kamikaze drones successfully attacked armored vehicles of Russian troops.
Another Ukrainian aerial scout interviewed by Kyiv Post noted that the footage also captured Ukrainian artillery and mortars hitting the Russian infantry, who had already landed and taken up positions. The video then showed FPV kamikaze drones targeting the dugouts where the Russian soldiers were.
The mine barriers prepared by the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) could be seen at the end of the video, blocking the movement of the enemy column and immobilizing the Russian tank leading the column.
ISW Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, June 29, 2024
"This is another assault that we repulsed... The Russians are constantly changing their tactics and looking for 'loopholes'," the aerial scout of the 58th Separate Brigade told Kyiv Post.
Former commander of the battalion company Aidar Yevhen Dykiy revealed in an interview with Radio NV that near Vuhledar, Russian troops have repeatedly tried to attack in columns, but without success.
"(Russians) are surprising us by the fact that they regularly repeat the same mistakes. The Vuhledar area holds the record for the number of 'walking in columns'," he said.
According to Dykiy, in 2023 Russian troops attempted to attack the Vuhledar area with columns at least five times: "Five times they went in columns, five times these columns were burned."
The aerial scout of the 58th Separate Brigade also announced the active use of night FPV drones by Russian troops.
"They (the Russians) brought night FPV to our direction, they are actively using it. And they increased the flight range, now we are suffering a lot from this," he said.
At the end of last year, Russian forces began to attack Ukrainian troops at the frontlines with night FPV drones. Military personnel interviewed by Kyiv Post disclosed that utilizing of such UAVs poses a serious problem, as movements of personnel and equipment, rotations, and deliveries occur either at night or "in the gray" - during the period when it has not yet dawned but isn't so dark anymore.
The commander of the attack UAV unit, referred to as Nazar* (name changed for security reasons), spoke to Kyiv Post on the condition of anonymity and assumed that there were trial uses of such drones at the time.
In these UAVs, the Russians use both light-sensitive cameras, capable of seeing in the dark with minimal lighting, and more dangerous thermal cameras. These cameras are quite expensive, but Russia has such capabilities, and "these capabilities are probably of an industrial level," said Nazar.
An aerial scout with the callsign Diego Rodriguez emphasized that night drones are a very effective weapon that will become a serious challenge for the AFU.
A serviceman with the call sign Potter told Kyiv Post that the units in the Donetsk region, where he serves, first encountered night drones around mid-autumn last year. According to him, since that time, all units have slightly adapted to camouflage from night FPVs, but there is no one hundred percent protection against them.
"So every movement is taken into account in case they use such drones against us," Potter said.
Earlier this year, Russian forces used FPV drones equipped with night vision cameras to attack civilian buildings in Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Yevhen Yevtushenko, the head of the district military administration, said although such weapons had already been used against Ukrainian troops, it was the first time they had been used against people living in the area.
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