Russia’s cloaks of invisibility fail to fool Ukrainian drones on front lines

On the Novopavlivka front, Russian forces are deploying small assault groups, often moving on cross-country motorcycles to close Ukrainian positions quickly. However, most approach on foot, Denys Bobkov, senior communications officer of Ukraine’s 37th Separate Marine Brigade, told Army TV.

He says Russian troops advancing on foot rely heavily on camouflage. Many use anti-thermal cloaks to make themselves “invisible” to thermal imaging. However, the tactic has its limitations.

"If the enemy stays in one spot for too long, even these cloaks start to warm up, making their heat signatures easier to detect. Also, our drone operators are now trained to spot human silhouettes. So while the cloaks are effective, it really depends on who’s hunting them," Bobkov says. 

On 28 April, Ukraine’s 63rd Separate Mechanized Brigade also reported that Russian assault troops wearing anti-drone cloaks became easy targets for Ukrainian drone operators on the Lyman front, ArmyInform reports. 

“Russia delivered a fresh batch of so-called anti-drone coats to its troops in Lyman. One might expect them to be harder to detect now, but they’ve only become more relaxed and started wandering through open areas. It seems they believe they're wearing invisibility cloaks. Our pilots at the 63rd Brigade explained to fourteen of them that they’re actually wearing garbage bags," said the brigade. 

Ukraine’s General Staff reports 178 combat engagements on the front lines in the past 24 hours. According to the update released at 08:00 on 29 April, Russian forces lost 1,060 personnel in a single day of fighting.