A daring Ukrainian operation using robots dropped behind enemy lines and “Trojan” armored personnel carriers loaded with explosives has led to the capture of more than 250 Russian soldiers, according to kyiv.
The Ukrainian army has eaten away at Russian-controlled territories in Ukraine’s Donbass region in eastern Ukraine in a counter-offensive operation dubbed “Vivaldi”.
His successes brought a spark of optimism during what would otherwise have been a bleak few months for Ukraine.
A video of the surrendering Russians, shared this week by Ukraine’s Third Army Corps, shows dozens of men walking through a forest in single file, forming a long human chain. Heads down, they are closely watched by their Ukrainian captors who then gather them in tight formation and make them make an impromptu call.
The video shows some Russian prisoners explaining that they surrendered because they “did not want to die in vain” and describing eating bark and grass as well as drinking from puddles after running out of the most basic provisions.
CNN cannot independently verify the video or Ukrainian claims about the surrender, but some prominent Russian military bloggers have lamented recent Ukrainian advances and demanded answers from Russian leaders over reports of command failures and supply shortages that led to the surrenders.
Russia has hit Ukrainian cities with near-relentless air attacks, taking advantage of kyiv’s critical shortage of air defense missiles. The past four months have been some of the deadliest for Ukrainian civilians since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.
Operation Vivaldi was largely defined by Ukraine’s innovative use of technology, particularly aerial and ground drones and armored personnel carriers.
During an assault operation, the Ukrainian army managed to drop robotic systems equipped with heavy weapons more than 10 kilometers behind Russian lines, according to Andriy Biletskyi, commander of the Third Army Corps.
Controlled from the safety of command centers deep within Ukrainian-controlled territory, these ground drones were then able to attack Russian troops from an unexpected direction.
The skies above Ukraine’s front lines have been teeming with drones for years now, posing such a serious threat to infantry that it has forced Ukraine to integrate ground robots into its arsenal.
These ground drones are much more difficult to spot and intercept than larger military vehicles. Compared to their aerial counterparts, they can operate in all weather conditions and carry much larger payloads.
But Operation Vivaldi is the first time they have been smuggled behind Russian defensive lines.
In another innovation, the Third Army Corps converted old Soviet-era armored personnel carriers into unmanned kamikaze ground vehicles by stuffing them with explosives and sending them toward Russian fortifications, prompting the Ukrainian military to dub them “Trojan” tanks.
After three months of modest but steady gains on Russia’s part, the situation reversed in September when Russia lost more Ukrainian territory than it had seized.
Experts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based conflict monitoring organization, calculated that while Russian forces seized about 175 square kilometers (67 square miles) in September, they lost 256 square kilometers (99 square miles) elsewhere.
Operation Vivaldi played a key role in this, allowing Ukraine to reconquer nearly 150 square kilometers (58 square miles), according to the ISW.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky put Vivaldi’s gains even higher, saying 176 square kilometers (68 square miles) had been reconquered and 5,000 Russian troops had been wounded or killed since the operation began.
The losses have been noticed in Russia – Rybar, one of Russia’s most prominent pro-Kremlin military bloggers, took to Telegram to complain about the “deteriorating” situation, saying that Russian troops will now be “forced to reorganize their logistics and adjust the pace of their advance on both Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin desperately wants to capture Ukraine’s Donbass region to the east, and the two cities that are part of Ukraine’s defenses pose a major obstacle to that goal.
Speaking on Thursday at the Valdai Club, a Moscow-based discussion forum, Putin said Europe and Ukraine fear that kyiv cannot resist Russia’s advances for another 18 to 24 months. Putin suggested Moscow could take the rest of Donetsk in even less time and that Ukrainian resistance was futile
However, Operation Vivaldi raised hopes in kyiv that Russia might not be able to take the rest of Donbass so quickly. While Moscow has gradually reduced the so-called “fortress belt” in the east, its advances have been slow and costly.
Western intelligence services estimate that Russia is losing some 40,000 troops per month, or about 340 casualties per square kilometer. The ISW calculated that at the current rate, Russian forces would not take control of the rest of Donbass before 2032 – if they manage to take it at all.
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