On Ukraine’s Frontline With the Kraken Unit | Crossfire Marathon (video)

09/18/2026

Deep in the forests of northern Ukraine, a new frontline emerged in the spring of 2025. Russian ground forces crossed into Sumy oblast, little more than 200 miles from the capital Kyiv. Among the Ukrainian units rushed to meet this new threat was the legendary Kraken Regiment. This is the special forces combat element of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate (HUR).

Across this two-hour Marathon, Crossfire reporters Richard Pendlebury and Jamie Wiseman go inside the battle for the wooded hillsides, following Kraken tank crews, artillery teams and drone hunters as they face a Russian invasion force reliant on drones to find, track and destroy the defenders. It is a deadly game of forest hide and seek.

Carefully camouflaged tank and artillery crews strike Russian positions before disappearing from the enemy’s sights. And high above the battlefield, Ukrainian drone interceptors hunt Russian Zala and Lancet UAVs before they can inflict devastating attacks.

As always in this drone dominated war, the hunters are the hunted too. The battles reveal how rapidly modern warfare is changing, and what it takes to hold a frontline where nothing is safe from the threat in the skies. Kraken held the line, but at a cost.

0:00 Lethal Forest Hide and Seek: Ukrainian tanks stop the Russian advance
21:39 Endgame in the Forest: Ukrainian tanks fight as Russian drones close in
45:00 British artillery versus Russian infantry: Ukrainian forest
1:20:00 What Ukraine’s Drone-on-Drone Warfare Is Really Like