SHOTLIST

LYMAN, DONETSK REGION, UKRAINE (RELEASED DECEMBER 19, 2025) (USERS MUST CREDIT “63RD MECHANIZED BRIGADE OF UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES” HANDOUT-FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY- DO NOT OBSCURE LOGO)

1. VARIOUS OF DRONE FOOTAGE OF FIBRE-OPTIC CABLES FROM FPV DRONES HANGING OVER DAMAGED HOUSES LYMAN, DONETSK REGION, UKRAINE (RELEASED DECEMBER 19, 2025) (USERS MUST CREDIT “63RD MECHANIZED BRIGADE OF UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES” HANDOUT-FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY- DO NOT OBSCURE LOGO) A new video released by Ukraine’s 63rd Mechanized Brigade on Friday depicts a striking and unconventional scene from the frontline town of Lyman in the Donetsk region: streets and damaged buildings entangled in a dense mesh of fiber-optic cables dropped by first-person view (FPV) drones.

The footage, shared on social media, shows a residential area covered with hundreds of crisscrossing cables, resembling a large spider web. The brigade stated the video was filmed by pilots from its reconnaissance company.

"The intensity of the fighting can now be measured not so much by destroyed buildings as by the amount of fiber-optic cable," the unit said in a statement accompanying the video. "The city is holding on, but it is gradually being covered by this ‘web.’ Every day, hundreds of enemy and our own ‘birds’ fly over here – and each one leaves its mark."

The visual underscores the escalating and increasingly technological drone war along the front lines, where both sides deploy vast numbers of loitering munitions for reconnaissance and attacks, often leaving behind the cables used for guidance and data transmission.

The status of Lyman remains contested. The Ukrainian open-source mapping project Deepstate marked the town as under Ukrainian control as of Friday.

However, these reports conflict with recent claims by Russian officials. On December 3, Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, stated that Moscow’s forces had broken through to Lyman. Ukraine’s military denied the claim at the time.

Subsequently, on December 11, the Kremlin announced the capture of several settlements, including Lyman in the Kharkiv region—a claim that appears geographically conflated, as the heavily fought-over Lyman is located in Donetsk Oblast.

Ukrainian authorities have consistently denied losing control of the town in Donetsk.