Deep in the Ukrainian countryside, under a dome of stars, soldiers carried out final inspections of drones, each with a 24-foot wingspan and 110 pounds of explosives, and launched them toward Russia. The group’s commander watched through night-vision goggles as they faded into the darkness.
“In the morning, you will read that an oil refinery is on fire,” said the commander, identified by only his call sign, Casper, for security reasons.
Most nights since August, soldiers like these have wheeled long-range drones into an ever-changing set of open fields and let them fly, targeting refineries and trying to inflict pain on Russia and its oil economy in ways that Western sanctions have not done so far. With Russia gaining ground on the battlefield, Ukrainians hope that this campaign, using weapons and tactics that did not even exist when Russia invaded in 2022, will help persuade President Vladimir V. Putin to end the war at last.
“The most effective sanctions, the ones that work the fastest, are the fires at Russia’s oil refineries,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said last month.
One recent night, The New York Times had rare access to a long-range drone battalion, on the condition that reporters not disclose even a general region, how many drones took off or how many soldiers tended to them. Though far from the front, the troops worked in full body armor and helmets, knowing that at any moment, if their location were detected, they could be targeted by a Russian ballistic missile.
“Russia is hunting us,” Casper said.
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