00:00 It's still dark as we head towards Avdiivka.
00:05 This city is Russia's number one target on the Ukrainian front lines.
00:08 We're joining an elite Ukrainian drone team.
00:12 "We've had intelligence that the Russians are planning to send in 250 infantry soldiers
00:18 today to attack our positions.
00:21 We must stop their attacks with kamikaze drones.
00:24 If we send our infantry in to stop them, we'd lose a lot of people.
00:29 Thanks to technology, we can prevent this, and a little piece of plastic carrying ammunition
00:34 can do our job."
00:37 Snow and ice as far as the horizon.
00:41 Kamikaze drones like these cost just $1,000 to make.
00:45 Cheaper and available, unlike ordinary artillery shells.
00:50 Thanks to the many drones constantly in the skies, nothing is invisible on the battlefield
00:54 anymore.
00:55 When this war began, no one took these "toy" drones seriously, including Ukraine's military
01:02 leadership.
01:03 This has changed.
01:05 Soldiers on both sides have learned to fear them.
01:09 "The landscape is covered in bodies.
01:14 The Russians advance over their own dead, and sometimes they even pretend to be dead.
01:18 We find them anyway.
01:20 They seem to be more scared of their own commanders than of us.
01:26 There's two of them lying on the left-hand side.
01:28 Slow down, don't rush, look at the middle of the screen.
01:31 No, that's not the target.
01:32 What we need is those two.
01:33 Look, they're over there.
01:35 We need one of you to take over."
01:37 It's a clear hit.
01:41 Two Russian soldiers caught out in the open.
01:44 Realizing the danger, they pretend to be dead.
01:47 But it doesn't help.
01:48 "This war has proven that all the old ideas and strategies for fighting a war don't work
01:55 anymore.
01:59 The world is watching us and realizing what still works."
02:08 But this war isn't all just about high-tech.
02:11 With temperatures fluctuating around the freezing point, the recent rain has turned the road
02:16 here into ice rinks.
02:21 Our jeep is just one of many stuck on the wayside, and even the best winter tires make
02:26 little difference.
02:30 This Ukrainian artillery unit has dug in near Bakhmut.
02:34 What would Elon Musk make of it, soldiers ask us, laughing, as one of many mice emerges
02:39 from behind one of Musk's Starlink internet terminals.
02:43 In an age of satellite connectivity here on the front lines, they're still waiting for
02:47 an innovation to properly defeat rodents.
02:51 Given enough time, the mice nibble everything, from sleeping soldiers' fingers to computer
02:55 cables.
02:56 "The cats we brought down here all ran off.
03:00 They were too scared of the rats.
03:02 Sometimes a weasel comes by and helps us out with the mice.
03:05 I don't really mind the mice.
03:07 They're harmless.
03:08 At least it's some kind of distraction."
03:10 With Russian drones ever-present in the skies, this unit essentially lives in this dugout.
03:20 Unless they're out firing at targets, they spend their time here, in their self-made
03:25 bunker.
03:28 "Of course everyone is scared.
03:35 But most people find a way to get used to it.
03:38 Those who don't aren't forced to stay here but transfer to other units."
03:42 "There's no criticism of those who left.
03:47 Some of the men we meet here used to serve in the infantry, just a few hundred meters
03:51 from Russian positions.
03:54 They chose to come here to the relative safety of an artillery position.
03:58 The frustration with those avoiding deployment entirely is stronger."
04:02 "There's no point sitting around at home and saying you're sick or telling yourself
04:07 I wasn't born to fight.
04:08 No one is."
04:10 "Everyone is going to have to fight sooner or later.
04:13 There's no point in hiding from the army.
04:16 You learn it all in the job.
04:18 And if you don't learn, war wouldn't forgive you your mistakes."
04:27 After two years of war, many here say the hardest thing isn't even the fear or the
04:31 boredom.
04:32 It's the uncertainty in the distance.
04:35 Every day down here these men watch their children growing up without them, thanks to
04:39 their smartphones and satellite internet.
04:43 "Sometimes I'll call my daughter and ask her how school's going.
04:49 'Dad,' she'll say, 'it's Saturday or Sunday.'
04:53 Down here you lose track of time."
04:56 And no one can say how many more days their country will ask them to spend down here.
05:03 - Okay.
05:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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