The war in Ukraine is more intense and technologically lethal than anything experienced in Afghanistan, a former British Army officer has said after visiting areas close to the frontline.
Andrew Fox, who served with The Royal Welsh and later The Parachute Regiment during a 16-year career, described the fighting as “far scarier than anything I did in Afghanistan”.
Speaking to reports, Mr Fox said the widespread use of drones had fundamentally altered the character of warfare on both sides of the conflict.
Mr Fox, who left the Army in 2021 with the rank of major and now works as a researcher and defence commentator, completed three tours of Afghanistan during his service.
Drone warfare reshaping the battlefield
He compared the threat posed by drones in Ukraine to the danger of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) represented for British troops in Helmand, but with a significant difference.
“You’ve got a lot of drones in the sky,” he said. “The way to think about it from Afghanistan is there’s IEDs, but they’re flying and somebody is targeting you with them.”
According to Mr Fox, Russian forces have adapted since the early stages of their full-scale invasion, moving away from costly large-scale assaults and relying more heavily on smaller teams of soldiers.
Ukrainian forces, he said, are also adjusting tactics in response to the evolving threat, including conducting more operations at night to reduce exposure to drone surveillance, an area in which the British Army has traditionally excelled.
He also noted the increasing use of ground-based drones equipped with machine guns, remotely operated to guard the flanks of units, a development he said he had not encountered during his own operational deployments.
‘Mass is a huge lesson’
Although much of the day-to-day fighting now involves smaller units, Mr Fox said one of the principal lessons of the conflict is the continued importance of overall manpower.
“I think mass is a huge lesson,” he said. “You need that mass of soldiers.
“And we don’t have that in the British Army, which means our alliances are really important. And obviously there’s a period of flux in our alliances right now as well.
“So that’s going to be a really tricky problem to surmount.”
Close to Pokrovsk
During his time in Ukraine, Mr Fox travelled near contested areas but stopped short of entering the town of Pokrovsk, which has become a focal point of intense fighting over the past year.
“Obviously, it’s a town that’s become very symbolic of the war,” he said.
“They’ve been grinding at this for years now. The area we got to wasn’t quite this far forward, we didn’t have a death wish. Without a gun, I don’t think I’d want to go anywhere near that.”
He said he remained approximately 12 kilometres from the front line around Pokrovsk, citing the cutting of supply lines by Russian forces and the persistent drone presence as key risks.
“The drones are everywhere. If you go further forward than that, then you’re sucked into this kind of thing, which is not where you want to be as an independent observer,” he said.
‘Survive and kill Russians’
Mr Fox highlighted the lack of rotation for Ukrainian troops as one of the most striking aspects of the war.
“Once you’re deployed forward in Ukraine, you’re deployed forward. There’s no going backwards and forwards between the rear areas and the forward areas,” he said.
“I’ve spoken to soldiers in Ukraine who’ve been on the front line almost three years solidly.”
Recalling a conversation with one serviceman, he said: “I asked one of them ‘what’s it like?’ and he said ‘I have two things to do every day, survive and kill Russians’.”
Mr Fox described the conditions as “the most brutal, raw state”, adding that the endurance required to remain under sustained strain for such prolonged periods was “quite remarkable”.
Despite the severity of the fighting, he said Ukrainian defenders remain motivated and believe they can win the war, though they accept that victory would come at significant cost.
