Inside the bunker with a Ukrainian vampire drone squad

livemint.com:

NEAR IVANIVSKE, Ukraine—For 48 hours, as the soldiers fought to hold a trench on Ukraine’s eastern front, their stores of water had been dwindling. Now, they had only a few sips left. The roads to resupply them were effectively cut off—made impassable by attack drones.

The Russians were just 200 yards away. “How much water do you have?" their commanders asked on the radio. A soldier called Grinch answered, “Enough for another day." It was the same answer he always gave, as long as he still had at least a couple drops.

“We’ll send more," one of the commanders said. The question was how. Two years into the full-scale war, resupplying the trenches at the front has become one of the most vexing problems in Ukraine.

Small, explosive attack drones swarm across the front line, making it all but impossible for vehicles—which are big, easy targets—to bring men and materiel all the way to the trenches closest to the Russians. In recent weeks, Ukraine has begun ferrying supplies using large drones—like the delivery service Amazon.com has tested but with bullets instead of toothpaste. The Wall Street Journal accompanied a four-man team from the Achilles drone battalion, from Ukraine’s 92nd Assault Brigade, on a mission to resupply Grinch and a few others.

The effort began one recent Saturday afternoon when six zinc ammunition boxes were delivered to the team at a house in Kostyantynivka, a town about 10 miles from the front. The boxes had been packed with water and a few other goods, covered in bubble wrap and sealed with tape. Each was marked with the position it was destined for.