DBROPILLIA, Ukraine – A ravaged car with its engine destroyed and doors riddled with shrapnel lay on the side of the road near Dobropillia, a sleepy town not far from the front line in eastern Ukraine.
Hit by a small, remote-controlled drone, the mangled chassis was a stark reminder of why Ukraine is hurrying to mount netting over supply routes behind the sprawling front line to thwart Russian aerial attacks.
As Russia’s invasion grinds through its fourth year, Moscow and Kyiv are both menacing each other’s armies with swarms of cheap drones, easily found on the market and rigged with deadly explosives.
AFP reporters saw Ukrainian soldiers installing green nets on four-meter poles spanning kilometers of road in the eastern Donetsk region, where some of the war’s most intense fighting has taken place.
“When a drone hits the net, it short-circuits and it cannot target vehicles,” said 27-year-old engineering brigade commander Denis, working under the blazing sun.
“We are shifting into a so-called drone war,” Denis told AFP.
FPV (first-person view) drones have already seriously wounded a few of his men. Some are armed with shotguns to shoot them down.
The Russian army has also been deploying nets.
“We weave nets like spiders! For extremely dangerous birds without feathers,” the Russian defense ministry quoted a soldier with the call sign “Ares” as saying in April.
An earlier article by pro-Kremlin media outlet Izvestia also showed soldiers mounting netting close to the front.
Meanwhile, Kyiv authorities said at least 12 people were wounded in Russian overnight strikes on Ukrainey.
The attacks came after US President Donald Trump gave Moscow 50 days to reach a peace deal with Ukraine. AFP
Eight people were wounded in strikes on Ukraine’s central region of Vinnytsia, the regional military administration said on social media.
Three people were also wounded in an attack on Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, the region’s governor Oleg Synegubov said on Telegram.
And a 17-year-old boy was fighting for his life after Russian missile and drone strikes destroyed an industrial building in south-central Kryvyi Rig, the city’s mayor said on Telegram.
“This has never happened before. A ballistic missile and 28 Shaheds simultaneously,” Oleksandr Vilkul, the mayor of the city, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, wrote on Telegram.
He confirmed the teenage boy suffered a wound to his abdomen and was receiving medical treatment.
Three people were killed in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, according to local authorities.
Russia has been stepping up its summer offensive campaign as Washington-mediated ceasefire talks stall, claiming more ground in eastern Ukraine while pounding it with combined drone, artillery and missile strikes.
Trump said he had struck a deal with NATO to supply American air defense systems and weapons to Ukraine and threatened Russia with tariffs and sanctions, as he grows frustrated with Russian leader Vladimir Putin for rejecting a ceasefire and intensifying attacks.
Drones are also a worry for towns and cities.
Since early July, the town of Dobropillia, around 20 kilometers from the front line, has become a target for Russian FPV drone attacks.
During a recent visit to the civilian hub — where some 28,000 people lived before the war — AFP journalists saw residents on the streets rush for cover in shops when a drone began buzzing overhead.
When the high-pitched whirring had died down and the threat disappeared, one woman exiting a shelter picked up her shopping bags and glanced upwards, returning to her routine.
Every day, victims come to the small town’s hospital. According to the hospital’s director, Vadym Babkov, the enemy FPVs “spare neither medical workers nor civilians”.
As the roads “are not yet 100-percent covered” by nets, his ambulances have to take long detours, reducing the patients’ chances of survival, the 60-year-old said.
“We are all under threat,” Babkov added.
In Russia’s Belgorod border region, which frequently comes under Ukrainian fire, authorities have retrofitted ambulances with metal anti-drone cages — a technology once reserved for tanks and personnel carrier vehicles.
“Civilians have got used to it,” Denis told AFP.
Olga, a waitress in a small cafe and mini-market in Dobropillia, has devised her own way to cope with the constant drone threat.
“When I drive and feel that a drone is going to attack me, I open all the windows to avoid glass shards hitting me,” the 45-year-old told AFP.
The atmosphere in the town had become “frightening”, Olga said.
The shop next to Olga’s was recently hit by an FPV drone, leaving its owner in a coma.
“Now we jump at every gust of wind,” Olga said.
“The day has passed — thank God. The night has passed and we wake up with all our arms and legs intact — thank God.”
Despite the roads constantly coming under attack, Olga still receives products to sell in her small cafe, since suppliers take detours along routes away from the front.
But she doesn’t know for how long.
“Everything hangs in the air now,” she said. We’re living day by day.” AFP
