A Ukrainian soldier stands under an anti-drone net.Image: keystone
Anyone who travels through the country sees not only destruction, but also a remarkable ability to adapt. She is the reason why Moscow’s army is no longer making any progress. The price for this only becomes apparent the closer you get to the soldiers.
July 5, 2026, 9:20 p.mJuly 5, 2026, 9:25 p.m
Kurt Pelda, Kramatorsk / ch media
The military band has lined up in front of the town hall in the scorching heat and is fervently playing “What a wonderful world” by Louis Armstrong. In front of the orchestra there is an artillery shell casing filled with banknotes with the inscription “Donate to the Armed Forces”.
Here in western Ukraine, people actually live in a comparatively “wonderful world”. Siren alarms are rare, and the approximately 85,000 residents of the city of Mukachevo have only had to endure two Russian air raids in four and a half years of war.
Through the Carpathians to Kyiv
Nevertheless, the battle is on everyone’s minds: At the edge of the town hall square there are screens with photos of 72 fallen residents, including just one woman. The city belongs to the Zakarpattia region, which – like other areas of western Ukraine – benefits from domestic and foreign investments. Investors also include defense companies that have moved from eastern Donbass to the relatively safe west.
From Mukachevo I make my way through the serpentines of the Carpathians to the capital Kiev. What is striking: In the last few months, the Ukrainians have repaired many important roads – throughout the country. Cynics point out that such construction projects are always associated with considerable corruption. Nevertheless, the benefits that better transport connections offer for the entire supply chain remain unmistakable. Good logistics can decide wars.
Anyone who thought that resignation would spread in Kiev as a result of the frequent air raids was wrong. The capital is characterized by summer heat and smog. In contrast to some Russian regions where fuel is scarce, traffic moves when the roads are not overloaded. The mood is much better than the last time we visited two months ago.
Despite the rocket and drone attacks, people do not miss the opportunity to spend the evening outdoors and stroll in the nightlife districts. Many here find satisfaction in the knowledge that Ukrainian drone attacks are now regularly bringing the war to Moscow. And no less great joy is the realization that neither Putin’s air force nor the anti-aircraft defense system is able to prevent destruction in Russian refineries and defense plants.
Deadliest attack to date
Realists perceive the warm evening hours outdoors as the calm before the storm. The calculation goes something like this: Russia is making little progress on the front. After missing the spring offensive, the summer offensive has so far failed to materialize. Putin wants to compensate for this with attacks on the Ukrainian hinterland and especially on Kiev. Instead of many small attacks, the Russians save their ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones for a few days each and then overwhelm the Ukrainian air defenses with a mass attack.
Smoke rises over central Kiev after a Russian missile attack on July 2, 2026.Image: keystone
In the early hours of Thursday morning I am woken up by heavy explosions. While I was still sleepy, I counted more than 20 detonations in bed, sometimes several in quick succession. Because Ukraine lacks American Patriot anti-aircraft guided missiles, well over 30 Russian missiles manage to break through the air defense shield spread over the capital.
The subway will later report the number of 52,000 people who have sought safety in the underground stations – a record number that underlines the severity of the attack. In the morning, much is the same as usual: traffic jams in the city center, and a tractor driver drives a tank trailer from one tree to the next to water the sparse greenery of the metropolis. The police have closed the street at the “City Hotel Residences” because emergency services are extinguishing a fire in the roof of the five-story building. A little further out, rocket parts fell onto a high-rise building and set it on fire.
Here too, fire engines are parked on the side of the road. The firefighters are taking a break in a white tent with a Swiss cross. It was donated by the “Odd Fellows” lodge, which also has branches in Switzerland. A large residential building in another neighborhood was completely destroyed, as was a Ukrainian Red Cross warehouse. On Friday, the death toll in Kiev alone rose to at least 31 dead and more than 90 wounded. It is the deadliest air raid on the capital to date. Even though Moscow speaks of “precision weapons” and attacks on military targets, Russian missiles are notoriously inaccurate.
Gas stations in sight
As you drive further east, you notice numerous destroyed and burned-out gas stations. In revenge for the Ukrainian attacks, Russian drones are increasingly trying to sabotage fuel supplies in Ukraine. But there is a huge difference: Russia bombed all Ukrainian refineries at the beginning of the invasion, so that the country is now completely dependent on imports of gasoline and diesel. However, there are still an estimated 6,000 gas stations in the Ukrainian-controlled areas.
Anti-drone networks are supposed to protect this street in Kramatorsk.Image: Global Images Ukraine
But there is another difference: long before we reach the actual war zone, the road leads through never-ending network tunnels. These only protect against small drones. On the other side of the front, however, images from the E58 highway in the Russian-occupied areas of southern Ukraine show nothing comparable. This is also one reason why the Ukrainian drones cause so much damage there.
Shooting down drones is not as easy as the layman might imagine. In a well-hidden training camp near Kramatorsk, front-line soldiers who have just spent a few days recovering in the hinterland fire shotguns and assault rifles at a quadcopter piloted by a comrade. A soldier with a shotgun knocks the drone out of the sky with the third shot, but this takes quite a bit of practice. With the assault rifles, only several fighters firing from all cylinders together have a chance of hitting the small aircraft.
During the training, a delicate wing drone of the Liuti type (Ukrainian for “angry”) flies over the terrain in the direction of Russia. It is one of those weapons that recently forced Putin to acknowledge problems with Russia’s fuel supplies. Although the dictator tried to downplay the consequences, supply problems resulting from the attacks on the Russian hinterland are an important factor why the invading army is making little progress.
“It’s hell”
South of Kramatorsk, tank soldier Ihor is stationed near the fiercely contested town of Kostiantinivka, which has almost been taken by the Russians. Ihor’s unit has already lost many of the battle tanks, which date back to the 1970s, to drone attacks. For almost two weeks, he and his comrades have been digging a large pit with a pick and shovel to hide one of their last companions under the canopy of a small forest.
But the soldiers don’t even get a chance to use the tank because the Russians have already bombed the position. Ihor wrote in a short message that Russian quadcopters were peering into every crack to find and kill soldiers. In the heat, drinking water became as valuable as gold. “It’s hell.” Ihor does not believe that Kostiantinivka can be maintained in the long term.
In the village of Druzhkivka, a member of the White Angels police unit is on the lookout for drones.Image: www.imago-images.de
Nevertheless, the Ukrainians have achieved success with local counterattacks on other sectors of the front and have retaken territory. The rest of the summer will show whether Russia manages to offset Ukraine’s advantage in short- and medium-range drones and solve its supply and personnel problems. (schweiztoday.ch)