Drones buzz overhead, troops hunker underground in Ukraine’s hellish kill zone

Ukrainian military medics treat a wounded Ukrainian soldier in the field hospital near the front line in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia on Sept. 12. The vast majority of casualties take place in the so-called kill zone, a band about 10 to 20 miles wide on both sides of the front line, which stretches more than 700 miles from north to south.

The front line in the Russia-Ukraine war stretches more than 700 miles and has barely moved in four years. Yet straddling this line is the kill zone, dominated by constantly evolving drone technology.

(Image credit: Andriy Andriyenko/Ukrainian 65th Mechanized brigade)