Along a few blood‑soaked stretches of the front, Ukrainian soldiers have started using a new name for the battlefield: “Steel Canyon.” It’s how they describe narrow approach routes where Russian armored columns are forced to advance between tree lines and dug‑in positions — and where drone operators now wait above like hunters on a ridge.

Verified combat footage and Western defense analyses show Ukraine’s cheap, first‑person‑view (FPV) kamikaze drones slamming into some of Russia’s most advanced tanks, including T‑90M, T‑72B3 and T‑80 variants. What used to require costly anti‑tank missiles can now be done by a pilot with a video headset, a jury‑rigged explosive and a few hundred dollars in parts.

The result is a fundamental shift: open ground has become a kill zone. Russian armor that survives artillery must still run a gauntlet of quadcopters dropping grenades on open hatches and FPV drones diving into engine decks or tracks. In several documented assaults, entire armored groups have been halted or destroyed before reaching Ukrainian trenches.

For Moscow, the implications are stark. Tanks once seen as symbols of unstoppable power are increasingly forced to lurk behind cover or move only at night, limiting their usefulness. For Kyiv, “Steel Canyon” is proof that ingenuity and mass‑produced drones can blunt a numerically superior foe — but at the cost of a grinding, high‑tech war of attrition where neither side can safely rise above the earth.