Ukrainian general: “kill zone” at the front has reached 20–25 km and will keep growing

There is “one hundred percent” no longer a classic line of combat contact at the front, and the danger zone on each side stretches 20–25 km.

This was stated in an interview with RBC-Ukraine by Brigadier General Yevhen Lasiichuk, commander of the Seventh Rapid Response Corps of the Air Assault Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

“Both the line of contact and the rear of battalion defensive areas are today difficult to compare with 2022–2023. The scorched earth, the grey zone, the ‘kill zone’ — that is 20–25 kilometres. I think by the end of the year it will have expanded to perhaps 30 kilometres. And given that it is mirrored on the enemy’s side as well, that is already, count it, 50–60 kilometres — where the earth is scorched, where everything is monitored: movement, the movement of the enemy, and of our own units,” Lasiichuk said.

According to the general, within this zone military personnel must be either under the protection of electronic warfare assets or “under cover.”

Lasiichuk also suggested that in a year the battlefield “will become even more digitalized,” and the use of automated command-and-control processes “even more active.” The use of drones on both sides of the conflict will also continue to develop, he believes.

A similar assessment of the situation was previously given by Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky. In February he stated that Russian drones pose a particular threat to Ukrainian forces, and that a technological breakthrough in their production has led to the emergence of an especially dangerous zone along the 1,200-kilometre front to a depth of 20 kilometres.

In June, Syrsky said that the mass use of drones has complicated both sides’ ability to conduct large offensive operations, forcing soldiers to advance on foot — as in the First World War. According to him, the battlefield has become “transparent”: in good weather, troop concentrations within a 40 km radius of the front line are quickly detected by drones.

In February, New York Times correspondent Mark Santora also wrote that the front line in Ukraine is becoming more dangerous with each passing year, and that drones complicate any movement of troops.

Ukraine’s military ombudsman called for training Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers to live in shelters.