The situation in Kupiansk is dire for Russia’s forces.

Fewer than 100 of its soldiers remain in the city, mere weeks after Vladimir Putin’s grand
proclamation of Kupiansk’s capture.

Ukraine has destroyed all of the occupiers, and now reportedly has just 100 or so left to take out to fully liberate the city.

As for Russia, it can’t do anything but send more of its sold0iers to their deaths.

In a nightmare scenario for Putin, Ukraine
has deployed a robot army to create a kill zone near Kupiansk.

Russia kicked off January 20 with
several desperate attempts to regain some sort of foothold in or around Kupiansk as it tries to
reverse the damage that Ukraine has done to its forces since December.

To the north of Kupiansk,
Russia launched assaults against the settlement of Holubivka.

East of Kupiansk, there were attacks
toward Petropavlivka, Podoly, and Kucherivka.

Russia also attempted to advance toward the city
from the southeast, where its forces tried to gain footholds in the settlements of Pishchane,
Stepova Novoselivka, and Kurylivka.

Encirclement of Kupiansk is clearly Russia’s goal.

However,
the Institute for the Study of War, or ISW, delivers a flat verdict on what Putin had hoped
would be a busy and successful January 20.

Though Russia’s forces continued offensive operations,
they “did not advance.

” The obvious question is, why? And the answer is that Ukraine has created
kill zones around Kupiansk that are so massive that Russia’s soldiers can’t get through the
seemingly never-ending seas of drones they need to get past if they’re to launch anything resembling
effective assaults in the first place.

Those drones form the Kupiansk kill zone.

And as you’ll
discover soon, they may just provide the answer to Ukraine’s need to sustain its defense with as
few losses as possible.

In a January 21 report, The New Voice of Ukraine gives a little
insight into the kill zone that Ukraine has built around Kupiansk.

It is effectively
a wall of first-person view, or FPV drones, that stretches up to 25 kilometers, or around
15 miles, from the Kupiansk combat lines.

Those drones are constantly on the prowl.

With the aid
of reconnaissance drones, Ukraine’s FPV drones are on seek-and-destroy missions that are massively
restricting Russian infantry movement and often destroying the few vehicles that Russia sends in
the Kupiansk direction long before they reach the types of places where Russia could actually use
them in its assaults.

Right now, the outlet says, Russia’s movement and maneuvering have been
restricted to within a single kilometer, which is bad news for Putin.

Restricted forces become easy
targets.

Whether they’re in the kill zones or not, Russia’s wannabe Kupiansk occupiers are in massive
danger.

At least, those who remain are still in danger.

Most are already dead.

In its own report
on the Kupiansk kill zone, Militarnyi says that it is the Ukrainian unit dubbed “Orion” that has
set up the near-impenetrable robot army with which Russia now has to tangle daily.

That robot army
is lethal.

Militarnyi says that the kill zones are responsible for destroying up to 88% of the
Russian occupiers before they even approach their intended positions.

The outlet also reports
on the types of drones that Ukraine is using in the Kupiansk kill zone.

Leleka reconnaissance
drones are constantly in the air, searching for any sign of Russian movement.

FPV drones and
MAVIC drones are primed and waiting, loitering around until a target is located.

There are even
ground robots in operation, though it’s unclear whether they’re serving logistical purposes
or if they’re conducting attacks on Russian positions.

It may well be the latter.

A little
under two weeks ago, this very channel reported on Ukraine’s innovative use of a ground robot that
traveled over 20 kilometers, or about 12.

4 miles, of terrain to deliver an explosive payload of 12
anti-tank mines to a Russian position.

You can find out about the devastating effects of that
operation in our video, and then imagine what a robot like that could do to any entrenched Russian
soldiers who are attempting to plan an assault near Kupiansk.

It wouldn’t be pretty.

And it would
be one more thing for Russia’s Kupiansk invaders to worry about as aerial drones constantly buzzed
overhead.

A story told by Militarnyi offers the perfect example of what awaits any Russian forces
who attempt to navigate the Kupiansk kill zone.

The outlet tells the tale of a captured Russian
soldier who goes by the call sign Begunok.

His job was to guide groups of soldiers through Ukraine’s
kill zones so they could launch their assaults.

You do have to wonder which commander Begunok
angered to earn this suicidal task.

And yet, Begunok has survived his trips.

All three of them.

As for the soldiers that he attempted to guide, all were destroyed to the last man, leaving
Begunok the last soldier standing on all three of his attempts.

Finally, Begunok waved the white
flag and surrendered to one of Ukraine’s drones.

And why wouldn’t he? As Militarnyi says, Ukraine’s
use of such a wide variety of drones near Kupiansk means that every Russian who tries to infiltrate
always runs out of time before located.

“This allows space surveillance without the
constant presence of people,” Militarnyi says of the Kupiansk kill zone, before adding,
“In a typical scenario, up to five FPV drones, and sometimes even up to twelve, operate on one
target.

” One drone would be bad enough.

A dozen, all of which fly faster than a soldier can run
while carrying explosive payloads, add up to a death sentence.

They also add up to a solution to
a problem that Ukraine experienced in the Kupiansk sector several months before the kill zone was
developed.

And an officer of the Orion unit named Vladyslav Zolotarov explained all to Militarnyi.

“We understood that the problem was not the number of people or equipment.

We had to take away the
enemy’s very ability to move and gain a foothold,” Zolotaryov says.

And it really is that simple.

An
enemy who can’t gain a foothold also can’t push forward.

And if they can’t push forward, all they
can do is hopelessly wander as Ukraine’s drones search.

What Ukraine has here is a dedicated
drone wall that demolishes Russia’s forces.

And as we said earlier, these walls may be the answer
to Ukraine’s challenge of dealing as much damage to Russia as possible while keeping its soldiers
out of harm’s way.

According to ISW’s assessment, Ukraine now has an opportunity to deny Russian
advances, and even enable counterattacks of its own, by replicating the robot army strategy it
has used in Kupiansk across the entire front line.

This would be a game-changer, though it would
also mean that Ukraine needs enough drones, along with operators to pilot them, to work
across a frontline that now stretches about 1,250 kilometers, or roughly 800 miles.

That’s a
lot of drones, but Ukraine may just have enough to make it happen, especially if it focuses mostly
on the sectors where Russia’s attacks are at their most intense.

The ISW adds that replication could
be complemented by an increase in kill zone depth.

“Ukraine could significantly degrade the
effectiveness of Russian infiltration tactics if Ukrainian forces deny Russian forces from
operating vehicles within 50+ kilometers of the front line, thereby forcing the Russian
infantry to infiltrate greater and untenable distances on foot,” the think tank suggests.

A
big ask, perhaps.

But there is some evidence that Ukraine has gotten ahead of the ISW assessment
and has started to implement its kill zones in locations other than Kupiansk.

Euromaidan Press
highlighted this in a December 24 report where it said that these zones now cover not only the
Kupiansk sector, but also the embattled regions of Pokrovsk and Dobropillia.

Across all of these
regions, Ukraine is combining the intense drone activity that we’ve already covered with air
and artillery strikes that buffet Russia’s soldiers and equipment on both sides of the
front lines.

Extension is already happening, as the spokesman of Ukraine’s National Guard,
Ruslan Muzychuk, explains.

“A kill zone is not just the area between our and Russian positions.

It can extend beyond the defensive line, and it must be calculated in both directions.

”
This deepening is happening, in part, because Russia is also creating drone-filled kill zones
to prevent Ukraine’s counterattacks.

However, logically speaking, these types of zones are more
important to Ukraine than they are to Russia.

Yes, Russia wants to prevent Ukraine from reclaiming
territory that Russian troops have occupied.

But ultimately, Russia is the attacking force in this
conflict.

And it’s Putin, not Zelenskyy, who is ordering his soldiers to charge mindlessly toward
Ukraine’s defenses and straight into the kill zones.

With their robot armies, Ukraine’s soldiers
can operate in small units behind their kill zones because they know that the few Russian troops
that make it through will be easier to counter.

They’ve only just managed to survive a gauntlet of
drones by the skin of their collective teeth, only to enter territory where Ukraine’s soldiers are
actively looking for them.

For Ukraine, Russia’s kill zones are also dangerous.

But Ukraine is also
more deliberate than Russia with its assaults, and it tends only to launch them when it knows that
it has a high chance of success.

For instance, the arrival of mid-range drones into Ukraine
will soon be very important for dealing with Russian kill zones.

The likes of Ukraine’s Bulava
and RAM-2X drones can travel distances of up to 100 kilometers, or 62.

1 miles.

If a Russian drone
operator’s headquarters is identified, those types of drones can shut these types of combat zones
down, clearing the way for Ukraine’s troops to launch their counterattacks.

Still, it’s defense
where Ukraine’s drone walls are important.

And its priority now, especially if it intends to continue
the expansion that the ISW says could prove so important, is to ensure that it has as many
drones as possible.

Again, Ukraine seems to be ahead of the curve here.

In terms of pure numbers,
Ukraine has poured billions of dollars into making and acquiring short-range drones that it can use
to fill its kill zones.

On December 24, The Kyiv Independent reported that Ukraine was on track to
receive around three million drones by the end of 2025.

That’s according to former Ukrainian Defense
Minister, Denys Shmyhal.

He pointed out that this attainment of three million drones represented
almost 2.

5 times more drones than Ukraine built or purchased by the end of 2024.

Ukraine has built
and bought millions of drones for a reason, and the kill zones might just be that reason.

However,
Ukraine could always use more.

And on January 21, The Straits Times reported that more is exactly
what it’s going to try to get.

According to the country’s new Defense Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov,
Ukraine intends to rely heavily on its drones as a tool of asymmetric warfare that it will use as
part of an attritional strategy designed to force Russia to bring an end to the Ukraine war.

Keep
watching, and you’ll discover the shocking main goal of this strategy.

As for drones, Fedorov adds
that he will institute a push to replace Ukraine’s Chinese-made MAVIC drones with domestically
produced models.

This is a smart move.

The less Ukraine has to rely on imported weapons,
especially those that come from a nation that is also supplying Russia, the more sustainable
its defense efforts become.

Ukraine is already working on a local version of the MAVIC that
has the same camera and a longer flight range, and testing of that new drone may begin as soon
as this month.

Ukraine is working fast and at scale.

And if Fedorov’s new tech-focused approach
to the country’s defense is executed as well as it needs to be, the Kupiansk kill zone may soon
be replicated across the entire country.

We’ve talked a lot about kill zones and what they are
in terms of being no-man’s lands that are filled with drones.

But beyond this basic understanding,
it’s worth understanding the major issues that Ukraine’s robot army creates for Russia as it
tries to sustain the brutal assaults it needs to complete in order for Putin to grab more
territory.

What kill zones do, perhaps better than any other strategy that Ukraine has, is
turn massive swathes of territory into traps for Russia’s forces.

Though drones are the headline
weapons used in these kill zones, they actually involve a lot more than the aerial nemesis that
has caused so much damage to Putin’s ambition to rule Ukraine.

United24 Media demonstrated that
in a piece where it took us inside a Ukrainian kill zone.

Layered defense using the terrain to
the advantage of Ukraine is the key.

Let’s step into the shoes of a Russian soldier for a moment.

Deployed into a kill zone, you already know that drones fly overhead.

You can hear the faint
buzzing, at times, but those drones hide among the trees and are often just out of sight.

For all
you know, a reconnaissance drone may already have you in its sights, and Ukraine’s operators are
preparing an FPV drone ambush somewhere deeper into the territory you’ve been tasked with taking.

Filled with fear, you push on.

But that is far from easy.

You likely don’t have any armor, such
as a tank or armored vehicle.

That armor would almost be pointless as Ukraine packs its kill
zones with mines, dragon’s teeth, and anti-tank ditches to slow these types of vehicles down.

As
you inch forward, you may even see some of the burnt-out husks of vehicles that have attempted
to cross the kill zone before.

But you don’t have time to worry about that.

There are also massive
stretches of barbed wire placed to slow down soldiers who are on foot.

Hidden in the ground
are networks of thin barbed wire, named Plutanka, that are barely visible but are more than enough
to shred through your feet and ankles if you step into them.

You’ve also heard about tunnels
built into these kill zones from which Ukraine’s soldiers can watch or ambush you as you attempt
to push on.

This array of fortifications is navigable.

As long as you’re careful, you can work
your way around them and find some clear passages in the kill zones.

But what you don’t realize is
that these are all passages that Ukraine intends you to find.

Forced into narrow routes, you
find yourself surrounded by mines and barbed wire.

There’s no turning back now… And that’s
when you hear the telltale buzz.

An FPV drone is bearing down on you, revealing that Ukraine has
had eyes on you all along.

Maybe you get lucky and somehow avoid or shoot down the drone.

But that
doesn’t matter.

More will come.

You may even be dealing with several at the same time.

There can
only be one winner, and it won’t be you.

This is what a kill zone is, and it’s clear that drones
are just a piece of a larger puzzle from United24 Media’s report.

Zoom back to Kupiansk, and you
now understand why the hellscapes that Ukraine has created around that city are destroying up
to 88% of Russia’s forces before they ever have a chance to launch their assaults.

As Politico puts
it, “The result is a gray area of chaos stretching some 20 kilometers from the front, where drones
hunt for soldiers, the wounded are left to die because it’s so difficult to evacuate them, and
supplies of ammunition, food and water are almost impossible to move up to the fighting troops.

”
Russia is attempting to adapt to the kill zones.

In a January 16 article, Forbes writer Vikram
Mittal noted that one of the biggest benefits of Ukraine’s kill zones is the disruption that they
cause to Russia’s operations.

Stalemates result from Russian soldiers attempting to push forward,
only to be destroyed.

Russia has increased its use of ground robots to counter the kill zones, though
they’re currently limited to ferrying supplies and occasionally placing satchel charges on Ukrainian
positions, if they can reach them.

Russia is also sending increasingly smaller units, some as small
as five soldiers, in an attempt to bypass the kill zones.

This isn’t the best strategy.

Even if one
of these tiny units makes it through to a city like Kupiansk, all it can do after is entrench
itself and hope that reinforcements come before Ukraine finds them.

Do you remember how we said
that there were only around 100 Russian soldiers left in Kupiansk at the beginning of the video?
This type of strategy is how Russia has ended up at that point.

But above all else, the goal of
Ukraine’s kill zones is attrition, in manpower, equipment, and money.

The Atlantic Council
highlighted this in a January 15 article, where it said that Ukraine has invested heavily into
upgrading defenses across the entire frontline that it will use to continue the stalemate while
it destroys Russian soldiers in the kill zones.

“Strengthening Ukraine’s fortifications and
addressing manpower shortages will be among the top priorities for incoming Ukrainian Defense
Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who took up his post this week.

Fedorov made his name in government as
Minister of Digital Transformation,” the outlet says.

It’s right.

And Fedorov has set a pretty
bold target for Ukraine’s defenders to reach as he focuses on restricting Ukraine’s Defense Ministry.

After explaining that his first objective is to reform the ministry he now leads to ensure it can
manage itself and Ukraine’s military effectively, Fedorov set his goal for Ukraine’s drone
operators in 2026.

“The second strategic objective is to kill 50,000 Russians per month.

Last month, 35,000 were killed; all these losses are verified on video.

If we reach 50,000, we will
see what happens to the enemy.

They view people as a resource, and shortages are already evident,”
Ukraine’s new Defense Minister revealed.

The kill zones are already contributing massively to the
Russian casualty rate.

If the type of expansion that the ISW recommends is paired with a Ukrainian
Defense Ministry that further emphasizes the use of drones, anything is possible for Ukraine.

After all, Ukraine now controls 90% of Kupiansk and is achieving a 27-to-1 casualty rate against
Russia.

That city may show Putin what awaits his forces in the future as the kill zones expand.

Fedorov’s 50,000 monthly kill goal is lofty, but it is far from unachievable.

Ukraine has the
drones and the technological know-how to make it happen, as you’ll discover if you check
out our video covering Fedorov’s proposed reforms to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry.

And if you
enjoyed this video, remember to subscribe to The Military Show for more videos examining Ukraine’s
ever-evolving tactics in its war against Russia.