Though the
saturation of the sky with strike drones on both sides has been a feature of the battlefield in Ukraine for over a year, this spring brought a new seismic shift to this part of the front line: the arrival of the elite Russian drone unit Rubicon.
While also operating standard radio
first-person view (FPV) drones, Rubicon specializes in the use of long-range
fiber optic FPVs, designed to reach and consistently strike Ukrainian targets deeper in the rear than was understood to be possible.
For Ukrainian brigades fighting in the area, the arrival of the Rubicon drone teams has been a challenge like no other, forcing a complete rethink of their front-line logistics chains. Some have managed better than others.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s own
top drone units have done the same, targeting every part of the Russian logistics chain and making vehicle-based attacks and logistics next to impossible.
The result: a deterioration of the concept of coherent front lines, replaced by a grey zone between the two sides that gets deeper and deadlier with every month.