A Ukrainian brigade said it fought through thick fog hindering its small drones on the eastern frontline by using ground robots to spot Russian troops.
The 93rd Separate Rifle Brigade said on Saturday that it had used the uncrewed ground vehicles, or UGVs, in the village of Rusin Yar, located near the city of Pokrovsk.
The Kremlin has sought to encircle the city as dense fog descended on the region for days, limiting the visibility of reconnaissance and strike drones that Ukraine has typically relied on for defense.
“Taking advantage of weather conditions, namely thick fog, the adversary made a turn toward Ukrainian positions, hoping that our drones would be ‘blind,'” the brigade wrote on its social media channels.
“The Russians failed to account for one thing: state-of-the-art ground robotic reconnaissance systems, which during the enemy’s assault operations were located in their rear,” it added.
The 93rd said the UGVs detected Russian columns in the region, allowing its drone teams to deploy first-person-view drones to dispatch the advancing troops.
The brigade uploaded a video of what it said was the moment when a UGV spotted a Russian armored vehicle, as well as over a dozen clips of FPV drones flying into vehicles and dropping grenades on individual soldiers.
Business Insider could not independently verify when or where the clips were filmed.
The 93rd’s claim, however, could indicate how UGVs might work in tandem with FPV drones in challenging conditions for the latter. These ground vehicles come in many shapes and sizes and are often deployed to perform tasks that infantry might otherwise have to undertake.
The poor visibility from heavy fog has long been a major concern for pilots flying drones in combat, with Ukrainian troops regularly telling Business Insider that no reliable solution for bad weather has been found yet.
“Fog is fog,” said a drone pilot with the Flying Skulls battalion on Wednesday. Their identity is known to Business Insider.
Drone pilots and makers have often advocated for consistent artillery fire to prevent Russia from advancing, regardless of the weather conditions.
Russia has, in recent days, used the cover of heavy fog to press deeper into Pokrovsk, with Ukrainian units reporting a surge in troops attempting to push through.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that his troops there are likely outnumbered eight to one. On Tuesday, he warned that Russia has markedly ramped up the intensity of assaults in the key city, which serves as a transport hub for the region.
“The situation there is difficult, and in particular due to weather conditions that favor attacks,” he wrote in a statement on Telegram.
The war has lately seen Russia relying more heavily on small infiltration teams of two to three soldiers, who travel in smaller numbers hoping to avoid detection and gain a foothold in Ukrainian territory, gradually allowing Moscow to grow its fighting presence in the region.
But the fog’s cover has allowed the Kremlin’s troops to rush toward Pokrovsk in mechanized assaults. A recent viral clip showed soldiers riding on civilian cars, motorbikes, and trucks on a main road in the city’s south.
Still, Ukrainian troops told media outlets this weekend that their Russian counterparts had apparently reverted to their usual tactic of smaller fireteams.
“Last week, we had more mechanized assaults,” a spokesperson for the 117th Separate Heavy Mechanized Brigade told local outlet Suspilne. “Now, the situation has stabilized a little. They continue to move in twos and threes, their so-called total infiltration.”
CNN reported on Sunday that two drone pilots in the region also found that Russian troops in the region were being found in groups of two to three, as opposed to five to seven in the week before.
