Ukrainian soldiers stood up, stretching, rubbing their eyes and rolling over the sleeping bags in the cellar hiding place near the front line in the east of the country. Their day would not take them away. Most remained in the basement, working with keyboards and joysticks that control unmanned aircraft.

At an insecure moment for Ukraine, while the land moves between the hope that the President Trump will Stop talking The war will end and fear that the United States will withdraw military support, the soldiers participated in the Ukrainian army initiative, which he hopes to allow him to stay in the fight absent.

Sunday, after a week of unobtrusive war in Ukraine, including The most deadly attack on Kyiv, the capitalIn almost a year, Trump’s administration has issued somewhat conflicted signals about what will come next. President Trump had a brief meeting with President Volodymyr Green from Ukraine during the weekend, which Mr. Trump said he had gone well, and in later comments he did not exclude more weapons. But State Secretary Marco Rubio warned that the United States Near walking From the peace table and said that he would be “very important” next week.

If peace negotiations fail or the United States decide to abolish the shipment of weapons, the Ukrainian initiative for drones will probably take on greater importance than ever. The program, called the line of drones, doubles on the unmanned systems composed in Ukraine, mostly small exploding the drones flying from the basement shelter.

The program is once again a reminder of Ukraine’s ability to innovate during this war, which helped him face his much greater enemy.

“This is no longer a man against a man,” said the commander of the team who acted from the basement in Eastern Ukraine.

The group flies the first -person drones, which give the pilot the video equivalent of the seat in the first place as bombs in the Russian soldiers, cars, tanks or bunkers. In accordance with the military protocol, the commander asked to identify him only by his name and rank, private artem.

Even before the Line of Drones program, Ukraine has largely relied on unmanned weapons, which is now applied About 70 percent of all victims In the war on both sides, the Ukrainian army says – more than all other weapons in combination, including tanks, hoods, mortars and mine of land. While this second weapon was partially provided by the United States, the Ukrainians gather drones in the country from components mostly made in China.

An expanded drone program, in works since last fall, but officially announced in February, is Kyiv Plan B if he talks about the end of the war, which began with a Russian invasion of 2022.

The drones on both sides are already constantly spinning near the battlefield. In a drone war, Russia has an advantage in quantity, while Ukraine has an advantage in quality, often becoming the first adoption of new technological approaches. They include flying drones to expand the range of explosive drones and guidance of drones with optical fiber threads that are impermeable to interfere with.

The Line of Drones Strategy is overshadowed by conversations about the interruption of fire and the rejected assessment of Mr. Trump about Ukraine’s chances without American help. (“You have no ticket,” he told Mr. Zelensky in an oval officer’s controversial meeting). But drone implementation has already produced results, according to military analysts.

He is partially responsible for the quarterly slowdown of the Russian offensive in Ukraine. The Russian forces that rose forward last fall have been in the virtual barn since January, despite the expensive groups of the Russian army.

The Russian offensive peaked in November, realizing that month of 279 square miles of Ukrainian territory, according to the Deepstate, analytical group with connections with the Ukrainian army. In March, Russia won only 51 square miles, the group analysis showed. The main Russian gain over winter was expulsion of Ukraine from all, or almost all, the region of the fuck Within Russia.

The Ukrainian program will fill the four battalions of drones to become unmanned aircraft, extending each with about 700 soldiers to 2,500 soldiers armed with the first -person drones, others who discharge bombs and drones. The last one includes vehicles with remotely armed with machine guns.

All wars are launching innovation, from the invention of radar during World War II to the glasses for the Night Vid in Vietnam. But the Ukrainian strategy of drones was born of the key weakness of his army after more than three years of war: the Motivation of the Ukrainians to join the army. As the draft of the wrath became widespread, the supplementation of force became a challenge.

Drones do not replace soldiers; In fact, any flight of drones of the first person can require up to four soldiers. For flights last week in the northeast Ukraine, a determinant of drones consisted of pilots, navigators, armor and pilots of a drones.

But employment for these positions is easier than finding a hiking soldier who will serve in the trenches.

With fewer soldiers to lose to Russia, Ukraine wants to limit direct engagement. This is where the drones come.

The strategy focuses on the Earth’s belt about 18 miles deep behind the Russian front line. Airspace saturation through this area can prevent the Russian soldiers from massaging for the attacks for attacks. Drones, flying about 80 miles per hour, can surpass everything that moves around the ground.

“The fair is an estimate that it works,” said Michael Kofman, an older associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the program of drones. The lack of Russian equipment and winter time also played a role, he said.

The goal, said Mr. Kofman, was to devise a force that “can lock large parts of the front” and maintain without helping us. Ukraine, however, still relies on the United States and the European State for air defense systems to defend cities from rockets away from the front line.

The aim of the program is to spread over time, with experienced drone pilots with soldiers with soldiers in other units, in an attempt to complicate Russian logistics, anti -aircraft defense and electronic wars behind the line, Juriy Fedorenko, commander of the Ahil regiment, said in an interview. “The idea is to cover the whole line” drones, he said.

The Ukrainian army broke out last year when the Republicans stopped the proposal of the Law on Additional Save for Ukraine in Congress. The artillery ammunition flowed so low that some crews only dropped smoke shells. On one part of the front, near The city of Chasiv YarDrone Crews is compensated for by a tumultuous attack that has disturbed the Russian offensive.

The drones cost from $ 500 to $ 750, less than the artillery shells of a large caliber, which cost about $ 3,000.

Other soldiers record. The American Marine Corps this year formed its first experimental attack by drones, flying drones.

Private Artem serves with Achilles Regiment, one of the units that recently expanded in the drone program. Like a fifth of all regiments in the regiment, he is a former computer programmer who worked in a boom in Ukraine before the Russian invasion.

Although they operate in the lid about three miles from the front line, the drone crews are not spared neither the barbarians nor the danger.

On Friday, the Ukrainian crew caught a Russian soldier outdoors, breaking over the green grass of the flood rebellion of the Oskil River. He ran for security in the forest of trees. But the final video feed frame showed up close camouflage, suggesting that he failed.

Later, during the day, Ukrainian soldiers who put an outdoor drones kept out of sight while the Russian drones were buzzing over his head before accelerating and collapsing near a thunderous boom.

Yuri Syvala Contribution to the reporting of Harks, Ukraine.