Inside the 'kill-zone' on Ukraine's front line

BBC

After 225 days stuck in a front-line foxhole, the Ukrainian infantryman's muscles were so weak he could barely walk.

His commanders had tried five times to swap him with another soldier - but they could never reach him. Rotating soldiers on the front line in eastern Ukraine is extremely difficult because of the constant threat of drones.

This area near Kostyantynivka is currently one of the most dangerous hotspots, and the Ukrainian military admits that Russian forces have reached its outskirts.

Known as Kenya, the infantryman took two days to walk 11km (6.8 miles) back to his brigade, avoiding mines and hiding from drones.

Ukraine's 93rd brigade is tasked with defending Kostyantynivka and its surrounding towns and villages against Russia's advance.

If this highly strategic city falls, Moscow will be able to push towards the last remaining Ukrainian strongholds in the Donbas region – Kramatorsk and Sloviansk – from the north, east and south.

Vladimir Putin sees the capture of the Donbas as Russia's "priority goal", and Ukrainian intelligence says he wants it done this year. President Volodymyr Zelensky believes the Kremlin is planning another major offensive in the summer.

But Russia's campaign has lately become bogged down in the region.

Moscow gained half as much territory in the Donbas in April as it did in March, and a sixth of what it captured in December 2025, according to Ukrainian monitoring website DeepState.

Kenya's task was to maintain his position and listen for any movement outside. He and his comrade would engage only if Russian troops tried to move against them.

Defending land

"Drones did most fighting," he said. And these weapons have transformed how wars are fought.

Kenya and his brigade are living through what appears to be the paradox of modern warfare.

As machines increasingly replace humans on the front line, the role of troops becomes increasingly important in either seizing or defending land.

Gone are the battles where a column of tanks and waves of soldiers charge enemy positions.

Instead, assaults often involve two or three soldiers walking across a field or riding motorbikes, sometimes even on horseback or on bicycles.

Speed has become more important than armour if you want to survive inside the "kill-zone" - a wide and desolate area dominated by drones that hunt down anything that moves.

This is a grey zone along the front line within the range of drones piloted remotely from both sides.

"Every time when we had to come out of our positions, we prayed we would come back alive," said Kenya. "At night, we had to put on anti-drone cloaks to protect us against thermal cameras, but they would last for 20 minutes at the most."

Drones cannot seize positions; they cannot control heights and crossings.

So, even in the age of robots and remotely operated weapons, the old rule of war is still true: without boots on the ground, an army cannot hold territory.

That is why Ukraine keeps soldiers like Kenya in small foxholes and dugouts inside the kill zone, where they can do little more than stay and mark that territory.

The Russians are detecting their biggest fear. That's what happened to Khani, who spent 122 days at the front. He came to Ukraine as a Palestinian student in the 1990s and stayed.

Khani's position was in the basement of a two-storey house, which was turned into rubble by Russian drones and artillery.

When the Russians tried to enter the basement, he and his fellow soldiers opened fire, revealing their positions.

"Once they knew we were there, they first dropped explosives from drones, then kamikaze drones attacked us," he recalls.