Ukrainian daring operation forced 250 Russian troops to surrender: Kyiv

A daredevil Ukrainian operation using robots dropped behind enemy lines and “Trojan” armored personnel carriers laden with explosives has led to the capture of more than 250 Russian troops, Kyiv says.

Ukraine’s army has been chipping away at Russian-controlled territories in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas as part of a counteroffensive operation dubbed “Vivaldi.”

Its successes have provided a spark of optimism in what has otherwise been a bleak few months for Ukraine.

A video of the surrendering Russians, shared by Ukraine’s Third Army Corps this week, shows dozens of men walking through a forest in single file, forming a long human chain. Heads down, they are closely guarded by their Ukrainian captors who then herd them into a tight formation and make them conduct an improvised rollcall.

The video shows some of the Russian prisoners explaining that they surrendered because they “didn’t want to die in vain” and describing eating bark and grass as well as drinking from puddles after running out of the most basic provisions.

CNN cannot independently verify the video or Ukrainian claims about the surrender, but some prominent Russian military bloggers have lamented recent Ukrainian advances and demanded answers from the Russian leadership over the reports of command failures and supply shortages that led to the surrenders.

Russia has been pummeling Ukrainian cities with near non-stop aerial attacks, taking advantage of Kyiv’s critical shortages of air defense missiles. The past four months have been among the deadliest for Ukrainian civilians since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022.

Operation Vivaldi has been largely defined by Ukraine’s innovative use of technology, especially aerial and ground drones and armored personal carriers.

During one assault operation, Ukrainian military managed to airdrop robotic systems equipped with heavy guns more than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) behind the Russian lines, according to Andriy Biletskyi, the commander of the Third Army Corps .

Controlled from the safety of command centers deep inside Ukraine-held territory, these land drones were then able to attack Russian troops from an unexpected direction.

The skies above the front lines in Ukraine have been swarming with drones for years now, posing a threat to infantry so grave it has forced Ukraine to make ground robots an integral part of its arsenal.

These land drones are much harder to spot and intercept than larger military vehicles. Compared with their aerial counterparts, they can operate in all weather conditions and carry much larger payloads.

But Operation Vivaldi is the first time they are known to have been smuggled behind Russia’s defensive lines.

In another innovation, the Third Army Corps converted old Soviet-era armored personnel carriers into unmanned kamikaze ground vehicles by stuffing them with explosives and sending them towards Russian fortification, prompting Ukraine’s military to refer to them as “Trojan” tanks.

After three months of small but steady Russian gains, the situation flipped in September when Russia lost more Ukrainian territory than it seized.

Experts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based conflict monitor, calculated that while Russian forces seized about 175 square kilometers (67 square miles) in September, they elsewhere lost 256 square kilometers (99 square miles).

Operation Vivaldi played a key role in this – allowing Ukraine to recapture nearly 150 square kilometers (58 square miles), according to the ISW.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky put the gains made by Vivaldi even higher, saying 176 square kilometers (68 square miles) had been recaptured and 5,000 Russian troops either wounded or killed since the operation started.

The losses have been noticed in Russia – Rybar, one of the most prominent pro-Kremlin Russian military bloggers, has taken to Telegram to complain about the “deteriorating” situation, saying Russian troops will now be “forced to reorganize their logistics and adjust the pace of their advance on both Slovyansk and Kramatorsk.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin desperately wants to seize Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, and the two cities which form a part of Ukraine’s defenses are a key obstacle in that goal.

Speaking at the Valdai Club, a Moscow-based discussion forum, on Thursday, Putin claimed that Europe and Ukraine fear Kyiv can withstand Russia’s advances for only another 18-24 months. Putin suggested Moscow could take the remainder of Donetsk in even less time and Ukrainian resistance was futile

However, the Vivaldi Operation has raised hopes in Kyiv that Russia may not be capable of taking the rest of the Donbas so quickly. While Moscow has been slowly chipping away at the so-called “fortress belt” in the east, its advances have been slow and costly.

Western intelligence services estimate Russia is losing some 40,000 troops a month – a rate of roughly 340 casualties for every square kilometer. The ISW has calculated that at their current pace, Russian forces would not take over the rest of the Donbas until 2032 — if they can seize it at all.