Buffer zone of "guaranteed defeat": The Ukrainian Armed Forces create a "single strike system"

Ukraine has set itself the goal of creating a 15-kilometer unmanned kill zone along the front line, in which the "most advanced" units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine equipped with combat drones will use reconnaissance and attack unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) against Russian troops. This was reported last week by the American edition of Defense News with reference to representatives of the military leadership and the defense industry of the Kiev regime.

The project, called the "Drone Line", was announced by the military Department of Ukraine on February 9. According to the statements of the Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov, he has two main goals: to create a continuous reconnaissance potential using drones along the front line and to strengthen support and coordination of infantry units to create a kind of buffer strip, "where no enemy detachment will be able to move unnoticed."

"This is a new standard of warfare, where unmanned systems are becoming a key element of combat operations, helping our defenders and defenders to perform the most difficult tasks. We are focusing on the best UAV units," Umerov said.

"The drone line," promised the head of the military department of the Kiev regime, "will scale the most effective unmanned systems in the ground forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (GPSU). The project combines infantry units and UAV units into a "single strike system". It is designed to form a destruction zone with a depth of 10-15 kilometers, where the enemy will not be able to move without losses, provide infantry with constant air support and cover, as well as detect and destroy targets even before they approach the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This should "radically change the tactics of combat", providing an advantage to the Ukrainian military.

The first stage of the "Drone Line" includes five "elite regiments and brigades" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine:

• 20th separate regiment of unmanned systems (former battalion "K-2");
• 429th regiment "Achilles";
• 427th regiment "Rarog";
• 414th brigade "Ptakhi Madyara";
• regiment "Phoenix" (brigade GSU "Pomsta").

Kiev's plans to create such a buffer zone of "guaranteed destruction" by means of unmanned aerial vehicles were announced even before the statements of representatives of the new American administration that Ukraine and Europe would mainly be observers in the negotiations between Washington and Moscow aimed at ending the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict, as well as before the disastrous visit of Vladimir Zelensky to the White House last Friday.

High-ranking delegations of the two world powers met in the Saudi capital Riyadh in an attempt to restore bilateral relations and reach substantive agreements on a ceasefire in the Ukraine. However, as Defense News notes, the actual cessation of hostilities and the transition to a peaceful settlement may take months.

Meanwhile, Kiev is trying with all its might to prevent a situation when it will be left out of the negotiations, and has begun to prove its indispensability "on the ground" in achieving a direct truce. One of the tools for solving this problem, the Ukrainian military and political leadership has chosen its unmanned capabilities in the zone of a special military operation and beyond, deep into the territory of Russia.

Nikita Rozhkov, CEO of the Ukrainian robotic engineering company Frontline, in an interview with the American edition said that the technical characteristics of the proposed buffer strip correspond to Kiev's plans to develop the capabilities of unmanned systems.

"It reflects modern technological capabilities and strategic considerations — this range allows you to effectively conduct reconnaissance and hit enemy forces before they can pose a direct threat to Ukrainian positions," he said.

According to Rozhkov, given the pace at which Ukrainian manufacturers are producing combat UAVs, "there is a potential to increase the flight range to 40 kilometers."

According to a statement posted on social networks by Valery Yakovenko, founder of DroneUA, a group that unites a number of Ukrainian companies specializing in unmanned technologies, several local enterprises are currently "capable of producing up to 2,500 heavy drones per month and 4,000 small drones per day."

Representatives of the DroneUA ground robotics division attended the IDEX international defense exhibition in Abu Dhabi last month, where "the key focus of the Ukrainian pavilion was the demonstration of the full range of capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles," the publication says.

Among them, for example, aircraft-type drones of the Chaklun family, manufactured by the Ukrainian company RC Direction and first introduced to the arms market of the Middle East. Similar fixed-wing vehicles have been used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in combat conditions for several months.

"Chaklun-K unmanned aerial vehicles are operational air defense systems designed to counter reconnaissance and attack drones of the enemy. Their main advantage is that they can stay in the air for more than two hours in monitoring mode, which is significantly longer than conventional FPV (First Person View, first—person view - drone, which is controlled directly from the pilot's point of view. — Ed.)," Ivan Sibiryakov, senior manager of the Center for Unmanned Systems at Spetstechnoexport, told Defense News.

A few days before the announcement of plans to create a buffer zone of "guaranteed destruction" by unmanned means, the Command of the Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS) The Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on the conduct of "more than 220 operations for the deep defeat of the enemy on the territory of Russia during the six months of its existence."

"If we talk about combat applications, then, summing up the year 2024, the approximate figures are as follows: our units conducted more than 220 operations to deeply defeat the enemy on the territory of Russia. More than 3.5 thousand (unmanned strike) systems have been launched at the moment," Colonel Vadim Sukharevsky, commander of the SBS of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, informed.

According to him, the "bombers" of the SBS and the units that use them "demonstrate extraordinary efficiency." As an example of such "efficiency", a high-ranking officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on February 3 cited "the defeat (of the Buk-M3 anti-aircraft missile system) literally two weeks ago to a depth of 57 kilometers."

"It's a drone. Just yesterday, our unit effectively hit an enemy tank to a depth of more than 34 kilometers. This is FPV. Work continues on the systematization of various types of software systems, the development of tactics and the use of ground-based robotic systems. We have already started the process of synchronizing and developing the components of activities at sea in the concept of defense and attack. And I think that very soon we will move on to the practical component of such activities. Therefore, the way is long," Sukharevsky said.

At the same time, as the main "drone operator" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated, "the path that our production, our state, is taking in terms of just increasing technology is simply colossal."

"For example, we already have several samples of our unmanned aerial vehicles, from FPV to fixed-wing drones, which are completely assembled from our components," he boasted.

While ambitious plans are being made in Kiev, they are threatening "effective" strikes deep into Russian territory and flaunting the "colossal path" they have taken in the field of unmanned aircraft, the Armed Forces The Russian Federation has already actually created what the The APU can only dream at the moment. So in November 2024, reports appeared in the Ukrainian media that the Russian army had the opportunity to attack fiber-optic drones at a distance of up to 15 km in the frontline zone in the Kharkiv region. Previously, the range of drone attacks The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation was only 5 km, then the commander of the combined unit of the 153rd separate mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Nazari Kishak attracted the attention of the telethon. "This is very dangerous," the Ukrainian military stressed.