Civilian dangers multiply as drones transform Ukraine's battlefield
“The battlespace has become a lot deeper, a lot wider and a lot more lethal,” Paul Heslop, Chief Mine Action Adviser at the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine, told UN News in a recent interview.Unlike the early stages of Russia's full-scale invasion, when opposing forces fought from relatively fixed trench lines, drones now monitor vast areas, quickly identifying movement and directing artillery fire or carrying explosive payloads themselves.The result, Mr. Heslop said, is a battlefield where survival has become far less likely.“Normally, in combat, about one out of every four casualties is killed and three are wounded,” he explained. “What we're seeing in Ukraine now is that ratio being reversed, and about three out of four people engaged on the battlefield are being killed.”New weapons, new risksThe widespread use of drones is also transforming the contamination left behind after attacks.Rather than simply dropping bombs, drones increasingly deliver conventional weapons, including mortar rounds, grenades and rocket-propelled grenades, with far greater precision.Some scatter submunitions that explode on impact, while others detonate after a delay or remain hidden until someone unknowingly triggers them.“The person who goes into the area, if they're walking a dog or going to school, steps on a mine and it blows their leg off,” Mr. Heslop said, describing one of the many hazards facing civilians.
