By Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Natalia Yermak, Dzvinka Pinchuk and Yurii Shyvala -
Photographs by Mauricio Lima - Reporting from outside Avdiivka, Ukraine
The headquarters of one of the battalions in Ukraine’s 53rd Mechanized Brigade smells of freshly cut pine trees. The scents are from the wooden support beams in the labyrinth of trenches that make up most of the unit’s rudimentary base outside the embattled town of Avdiivka.
In the main command room, flat-screen televisions, computers and satellite internet pipe in images from small drones, as a cadre of Ukrainian soldiers keeps tabs on their portion of the front line.
What they mostly see is a violent stalemate.
As the war enters its 17th month, the fighting has developed a noticeable rhythm. Russia and Ukraine are locked in a deadly back and forth of attacks and counterattacks.
Russian artillery no longer has the clear advantage and Ukrainian forces are struggling with staunch Russian defenses, grinding on in their southern offensive, slowed because of dense minefields.
Small territorial gains come at an outsize cost. Field hospitals that were closed after the battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut have been reopened, volunteers said, and Ukrainian soldiers described a determined foe.
“We’re trading our people for their people, and they have more people and equipment,” said one Ukrainian commander whose platoon has suffered around heavy casualties since Russia launched its full-scale invasion last year.
This New York Times analysis of the war is based on a dozen visits to the front line and interviews in June and July with Ukrainian soldiers and commanders in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, where many of the battles are being fought.
Those visits showed the Ukrainian military facing a litany of new and enduring challenges that have contributed to its slow progress.
Ukraine has done well to adapt a defensive war — wiring Starlink satellite internet, public software and off-the-shelf drones to keep constant tabs on Russian forces from command points. But offensive operations are different: Ukraine has made marginal progress in its ability to coordinate directly between its troops closest to Russian forces on the so-called zero line and those assaulting forward.
Ukrainian infantry are focusing more and more on trench assaults, but after suffering tens of thousands of casualties since the war’s start, these ranks are often filled with lesser-trained and older troops. And when Russian forces are driven from a position, they have become more adept at targeting that position with their artillery, ensuring Ukrainian troops cannot stay there long.
Ammunition is in short supply, and there is a mixture of munitions sent from different countries. That has forced Ukrainian artillery units to use more ammunition to hit their targets, Ukrainian soldiers said, because accuracy varies widely between the various shells. In addition, some of the older shells and rockets sent from abroad are damaging their equipment and injuring soldiers. “It’s a very big problem now,” said Alex, a Ukrainian battalion commander.
Finally, in the summer months, camouflage and greenery remain crucial factors in whether a battlefield operation will be successful. Defending forces almost always have the advantage, whether because of unseen trenches or hidden electronic warfare units that use deceit and concealment to throw off attacking forces.
Getting the Coordinates, and Firing
The setup the soldier named Valerii was watching in the command center is common among a majority of Ukrainian units fighting in the east. Unlike the United States and other NATO countries that use intricate military communication equipment to monitor the battlefield, Ukrainian troops use less sophisticated, but easier-to-use, programs like smartphone messaging apps, private internet chat rooms and small Chinese-made drones to watch the goings on along the front line.
It is an ad hoc, but effective, communication suite that is overlaid with homegrown Ukrainian software, providing the locations of Ukrainian units and suspected positions of Russian forces.
The downside of this system is that it is almost entirely tethered to Starlink satellite internet. That means when Ukrainian units are assaulting — absent a Wi-Fi router — it takes longer to communicate important information like artillery targets because attacking troops have to reach someone with an internet connection to call for support.
For the full 12 page article in pdf with many images by Mauricio Lima, please click on this link:
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