Ep 5 – Rob Lee: Back from the Front — Ukraine Closes the Deep-Strike Gap (June 2026)

Rob Lee is back in Kyiv after another round of frontline visits — from Zaporizhzhia to Donetsk to Kharkiv — talking directly with frontline commanders and the R&D teams building the war's newest capabilities. In this episode Sam Cook stands in for Dmytro Putiata and interviews Rob on what's actually changed as of early June 2026.The headline shift: deep strike is no longer Russia's game. Ukraine is now hitting at operational depth too — with cheap, scalable drones, corps-level strike assets like Hornets, and a brigade-to-corps reform that's giving commanders real ownership of their battlespace. Rob walks through where the front is genuinely different from a year ago, where it's still grinding (Kostiantynivka, the Kramatorsk–Sloviansk line), and why he wouldn't be surprised to see successful Ukrainian armor assaults this year.A granular, on-the-ground read from the analyst with the access to get it.Chapters:00:00 Intro — who Rob is and this June trip04:58 The front as of early June 202606:03 Why map movements mislead — reading the front08:19 What he saw: Zaporizhzhia to Donetsk to Kharkiv09:00 Is Russia slowing? Manpower and priorities11:43 Corps get Hornets — striking deeper behind the line12:51 Brigade-to-corps reform: commanders own the battlespace15:03 Dobropillia: redeployments and Rubicon15:55 The cheap-drone revolution — $4,000 recon, Mavic + Starlink18:00 Counter-Shahed and the interceptor problem20:31 Starlink on UGVs — why it's indispensable21:52 Europe and the US stepping up production24:46 Corps UAS regiments and reduced vulnerability26:15 Where it's still hard: Kostiantynivka26:47 Kramatorsk–Sloviansk and the high-ground threat32:23 UGVs: the gas-powered casevac "mule"33:07 Only 20% of the UGVs they need33:48 AI targeting and camera-guided turrets35:26 A WWI analogy for this moment36:06 Why Ukrainian armor assaults may return (Zabrodsky callback)37:31 Operational depth: where Ukraine now has the edge38:21 FP-2s and the middle-strike payload gap39:55 1,000+ drones a night — the deep-strike picture40:34 Deep strike is no longer Russia's game41:23 Putin doubling down, and why the war turned42:45 Drones = 80%+ of casualties now43:33 Recap of the trends46:40 Wrap-upRob Lee is a senior fellow at FPRI and a former US Marine. Host Samuel Cook is the founder of the Ukraine Military History Institute and a former US Army officer who taught Russian history at West Point.🎧 Listen & subscribe:All episodes: https://ukrainemilitaryhistory.org/Apple: https://ukrainemilitaryhistory.s.gy/d6Vm9DSpotify: https://ukrainemilitaryhistory.s.gy/bEE3Y9Amazon: https://ukrainemilitaryhistory.s.gy/hun4CHCastbox: https://ukrainemilitaryhistory.s.gy/fwdd5A▶ Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@UkraineMilitaryHistory📩 Two Marines (Rob & Dmytro): https://ukrainemilitaryhistory.s.gy/wt9OCKProduced by the Borderlands Foundation.#Ukraine #UkraineWar #RobLee #DroneWarfare #MilitaryAnalysis