ANTHONY LOYD IN UKRAINE
A firefight erupts and soldiers watch on a drone feed as their comrades fall
Anthony Loyd reports from a Ukrainian command post as a patrol runs into chaos on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river
The Times
The speedboat pulled away from the riverbank with five Ukrainian soldiers crouched low inside, barely visible in the dim moonlight. Yet as it moved along the river, enemy eyes on the other side watched its progress, planning the men’s destruction.
Watching too that night, on a live feed from a Mavic drone transmitted into his command post in a nearby farmhouse, was a young captain in his late twenties with a handful of his men, all members of a specialised Ukrainian intelligence unit. This was his mission.
The improvised operations room was small and dusty, with peeling beige wallpaper, a table and sofa. A couple of Polish assault rifles lay in one corner. The captain sat at the table with a laptop, a tablet and
