On the eastern front in Ukraine, commanders say the battlefield has changed so radically that “the surface war is over” – and for Russian troops, the new reality is nightmarish. What once looked like conventional trench lines is now a fully digitized kill zone, where nearly every movement above ground can be detected, filmed and struck within minutes.

Ukrainian units, backed by Western technology and their own improvised engineering, are fielding swarms of first‑person‑view (FPV) kamikaze drones, thermal‑equipped quadcopters and long‑range “kamikaze” UAVs that hunt vehicles, bunkers and even individual soldiers. Russian forces use similar tools, but analysts say Ukraine’s rapid innovation and crowdsourced drone production have made low‑flying machines the defining weapon of this phase of the war.

The result: open ground is often suicidal. Both sides are digging deeper – multi‑level trenches, underground command posts and tunnel networks – while cheap drones and counter‑battery radars stalk artillery, forcing guns to fire and relocate in minutes or be destroyed. Satellite imagery and real‑time mapping apps leave almost no large target truly hidden.

For Moscow, this means any fresh assault risks walking into a sky of invisible threats: mines, remote‑triggered charges, FPV drones diving into trenches, and guided shells homing in on exposed armor. For Kyiv’s troops, the nightmare is mirrored; there is no rear area completely safe from glide bombs and Russian reconnaissance drones.

Military planners now openly talk of a permanent “sensor‑strike” battlefield, where survival depends less on brute force than on electronic warfare, camouflage and the ability to disappear underground before the next drone arrives.