Minefields and Menace: Why Ukraine’s Pushback Is Off to a Halting Start

On a recent dawn, after a rainstorm had blown over the night before, the gunners prepared a Soviet-legacy howitzer of a type nicknamed the Carnation. The barrel swiveled. “Fire!” a soldier yelled. The gun boomed. Leaves fluttered down from nearby trees.

A few minutes later, the artillery team was sent by an intelligence unit an intercept of Russian walkie-talkie communications. “Probably two dead,” a Russian commander said. The soldiers were in a buoyant mood.

“It’s our usual working day to destroy as much as possible,” Arseniy said.

Of the counteroffensive, which he sees through the ebb and flow of orders to fire the gun, he said, “I think it is going to plan,” but then added, “Even if things go not according to plan, that is also in our plan.”

The once sleepy country roads, lined with tall green grass and wildflowers, are now clogged with ambulances leaving the front, their lights flashing. Tracked vehicles rumble along, and pickup trucks spray painted with makeshift camouflage, the main transport for soldiers, bounce over the ruts.

As twilight faded into night, and swallows swooped and screeched over the fields, a Ukrainian drone surveillance unit attached to the 47th Mechanized Brigade went to work.

These first hours of night are prime time for hunting Russian tanks with infrared cameras, as the bulky metal armor, warmed in the sun through the day, all but glows in the dark.

“Sunset is our golden time,” said the commander, Lt. Arutiunian. The soldiers spot tanks, then call in coordinates to an artillery team.