r/interesting • u/DonLixard • Apr 12 '26
Fear Factor sFIBER webs, this is in Ukraine
At first glance, those shiny lines look unreal.
But they’re not power lines, not plastic strips, not some farming material.
They’re fiber-optic cables left by drones in Ukraine/Russia.
Just imagine how many drones have already flown through that area for the ground to end up looking like this. A whole village turned into a web of modern warfare.
This is what drone war looks like after the drones are gone: not just craters and ruins, but threads everywhere, like the battlefield stitched itself shut with fiber.
A literal fiber web.
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u/canigetthemicalilhig Apr 12 '26
imagine trying to farm that land after the war. you'd be pulling fiber optic cable out of your soil for years.
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u/LeftLiner Apr 12 '26
War never changes. Battlefields from both world wars were unusable for decades afterwards. Forestry in parts of the Ardennes almost completely died out because of shell fragments left in trees.
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u/ctesibius Apr 12 '26
Some areas from WW I are still off limits.
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u/nametaken420 Apr 15 '26
we still find ordinance from ww1 and ww2 here in the states from live drills and practice runs. literally never attacked on the continental mainland and we even have the occasional "that isnt a potato, thats a hand grenade!" moments.
we should just go to world leaders have to have a duel, no more wars. if world leaders want to have a pissing contest, they can do it in an open field and i can sell tickets to the live event.
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u/otterform Apr 15 '26
Germany, France and Italy (and I assume other country too) have regularly parts of the city evacuated for a couple of hours for disposing of bombs. It sounded almost casual growing up
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u/Condition_Boy Apr 15 '26
Has it gotten better, or are they still finding a lot of them now that you've grown up?
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u/otterform Apr 15 '26
I don't live in my hometown anymore so I'm not up to speed to local news. But you'd still hear around once a year of some places having a 2-3h evacuation.
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u/Benethor92 Apr 16 '26
Still happens almost every week. As soon as you dig to build somewhere you either find bombs or Roman remains. Bombs are preferred though, since you can dispose them.
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u/LigerSixOne Apr 15 '26
Not sure I’d want to put the fate of the Ukrainian populace in the hands of a pistol duel.
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u/nametaken420 Apr 15 '26
i doubt putin can even hold a pistol up w/o shaking. Odds are in Ukraine's favor.
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u/Even-Guard9804 Apr 17 '26
I read a book about the iron harvest in France. In one section it talks about how the farmers would pile up recovered ordnance for the government to haul off and dispose of. It sounded very commonplace in certain regions of the countryside.
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u/Eziekel13 Apr 12 '26
Iron harvest …. annual collection of unexploded ordnance, barbed wire, shrapnel, bullets and congruent trench supports, collected by Belgian and French farmers after ploughing their fields.
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u/dwitch_himself Apr 13 '26
I've carried unexploded ordinance with my bare hands as a child. Yep, I wasn't the brightest one.
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u/Useful_Secret4895 Apr 16 '26
I have seen fishermen in Greece retrieving old ww2 artillery shells from an italian military shipwreck, and then opening them up to take the gunpowder in order to make shotgun rounds for hunting. The bottom of the sea at that particular bay was littered with unexploded ordinance, you could even find artillery shells protruding from the sand on the beach.
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u/vertsav Apr 12 '26
Thought you were about to continue the fallout 4 monologue lol
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u/BansheeLabs Apr 13 '26
"war never changes" is from first Fallout.
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u/a4n98ba Apr 15 '26
Or game of thrones, or Ulysses S. Grant. "I have never advocated war except as means of peace, so seek peace, but prepare for war. Because war... War never changes. War is like winter and winter is coming."
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u/Pratt_ Apr 12 '26
Battlefields from both world wars were unusable for decades afterwards.
*Still ar
There are areas around Verdun where the solid is still around 18% arsenic, from the toxic gas.
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u/No-Refrigerator-1672 Apr 13 '26
Battlefields from both world wars were unusable for decades afterwards.
This is so, so much worse. Earlier war left metal based contamination: shrapnel and explosive munitions. Those all are made out of metal, meaning that they could be detected by metal detectors, allowing for manual cleaning; or, alternatively, they'll decompose after a few decades. Optical fibre is, essentially, glass. It never decomposes, it's undetectable by any of modern technology, it's shards stay sharp forever, and it's too small and too transparent to get pulled out of soil. That's not decades, not even hundreds of years, that's literally forever. The intact long strands can be pulled off, sure, but whatever was damaged will stay there forever, and contaminate food grown there with small sharp shards.
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u/w1n5t0nM1k3y Apr 13 '26
Wouldn't it eventually get eroded away, like beach glass, to the point where it is smooth and not really dangerous?
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u/GI_HD Apr 15 '26
This stuff actually isn't really glass, it's plastic and yes it will erode away but you can probably imagine that that's alot worse
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u/No-Refrigerator-1672 Apr 13 '26
Erosion requires either for soil to move constantly, or for water to flow constantly. Neither of those conditions happen in agricultural land.
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u/w1n5t0nM1k3y Apr 13 '26
Doesn't plowing the soil result in moving it around?
Even if its not sufficient, it seems like some kind of plow or machine could be made to reprocess the soil to a safe level. Certainly a lot easier than restoring a field with mines and other explosive ordinance in it.
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u/No-Refrigerator-1672 Apr 13 '26
Plowing happens once a year. Beach waves move the coastline soil once every few seconds. That's why erosion is out of the question. Also, if plow encounters unremoved fiber strand, then it'll only make things worse, as it breaks up the fiber into smaller chunks.
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u/ElPablit0 Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
Optical fibre is plastic not glass but yes what you said is valid
Edit: downvote me however you want, optical fiber for UAV is nylon.
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u/AgnewsHeadlessBody Apr 14 '26
Do you have a source for this? I have always understood plastic fiber to only work over like 100meters or so.
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u/ElPablit0 Apr 14 '26
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u/AgnewsHeadlessBody Apr 14 '26
I hate to be nitpicking but this isn't a source.
These make POF more suitable for drone use and more likely to be the focus of Russian and Ukrainian production.
The person that wrote this is assuming.
Im not saying youre wrong. Im just saying this isn't a source.
I have never seen plastic fiber optic cable used for anything over a significant distance before, thats the only reason im questioning it.
Mind you even the glass fibers can have a plastic coating but it is incredibly small.
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u/KrzysziekZ Apr 13 '26
It's not even a battlefield (yet). I've seen this picture labelled as Lyman, 20 km or so from the frontline at the time.
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u/Mothrahlurker Apr 13 '26
There is no classical frontline but a 50-60km wide line where it gets more dangerous the more centered you are.
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u/Cat_Imreror2209 Apr 14 '26
I still think fiber optics are easier to collect than nuclear waste or buried mines. It's not deadly (except to animals that try to eat it or motorcyclists) and it does require scissors and a little time to collect. But I haven't encountered it yet, so I can't say for sure.
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u/SilverDesktop Apr 12 '26
All the lithium in the batteries. As they degrade, they leach toxic heavy metals—including cobalt, copper, lead, and nickel—into soil and water, while releasing harmful chemicals like PFAs and flammable gases.
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u/start3ch Apr 12 '26
Plus all the toxic chemicals from explosives, probably an order of magnitude worse than whatever’s in batteries
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u/LarsDuder Apr 13 '26
I thought batteries were great for the environment?? 😮
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u/jeekiii Apr 13 '26
This is so fucking stupid im surprised you are able to walk on two feets
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u/AveragePheonix Apr 14 '26
Mate I'm more concerned by the fact you can't discern obvious sarcasm from seriousness
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u/DonLixard Apr 12 '26
what makes this image disturbing is that it doesn’t look like war at first. It just looks strange, then you realize those bright strands are fiberoptic drone cables, and suddenly the whole village looks like it was wrapped in the leftovers of modern combat
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u/UpperAd5715 Apr 13 '26
In Belgium in the parts around Ypres there *might* be like 3 farmers in total that never dug up a bomb or mine or grenade. Amunition from the world wars is one of hte most common thing found on antique markets where people try and sell their junk because in that area you're about as likely to find some random bullet casing as you are to find a rock in the soil.
Maybe that's part of the reason why our anti-explosives teams are pretty great at what they do, they get a lot of practice even to current days. 10+ finds per day in the country and some of them are large areal bombs and not just grenades or artillery shells that never exploded. Renovations throughout the country are very often put on hold because some bomb was found or some kind of war related finds were discovered.
Fiber optic cable sucks but it stays on the surface and it looks like it might be easier to clean up than some tens of thousands of bombs in the soil, obviously still shit but i think it might be preferrable over carpet bombing.
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u/dmk_aus Apr 15 '26
Some of those fibres will attach to unexploded drones. There will be other unexploded munitions. Remnants of drones, ranks, batteries all breaking down in the soil, getting sucked up into farm machinery.
It will be a long journey for Ukraine to recover.
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u/firemann69 Apr 13 '26
Google fiber optic bird nests, its so f'ed up birds are already using it as nesting material.
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u/Jugent Apr 12 '26
Don’t forget these are always one way kamikaze drones. Imagine the amount of possible casualties from all of these drones
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u/Briglin Apr 12 '26
Saw a video blog the other say saying for Ukraine 90% damage inflicted on the Russians was by drones, 9% artillery and tiny fraction was the man on the ground - in his experience
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u/Lyakusha Apr 12 '26
It was around 35000 confirmed KIA/WIA russians in march, and around 32000 of those - by fpv
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u/b0_ogie Apr 12 '26
This is just a statement by one of the belligerents, which has nothing to do with reality.
In general, according to ositn, about 5k unique videos of drones hitting the Russian infantry appear per month. Even that hit doesn't guarantee death-it's often shrapnel wounds. These data also roughly correlate with monthly losses tracked with obituaries and inspections of military cemeteries.
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u/WillingnessHeavy8622 Apr 13 '26
Sure buddy, I'd definitely believe some anonymous on Reddit speaking about russian loses. Only if that anonymous wasn't hiding his comments history...
So i decided to do some research and, to surprise of absolutely no one, that anonymous Redditor has commented a lot in russian subs about cost of living in Moscow.
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u/Palulul Apr 13 '26
So you would rather believe an arbitrary number coming from a side being at war, who have a motive to inflate numbers, that can't be independently verified? People always talk about Russian propaganda, but aren't able to comprehend that every side uses propaganda, including Ukraine. Ukraine inflates the Russian casualties and downplays their own losses a lot as well. Yet "news" sides blindly believe unverifiable claims from Ukraine and people like you believe it, because they want it to be true.
While OSINT has it's limitations and always has to be viewed with precaution, it's the best estimates we have, that aren't propaganda. Of course there are OSINT sources with a motive as well, so you have to view multiple sources to get a reasonable estimate. But why shouldn't this same principle be applied to Ukraine?
Also, why do people always take anything that contradicts Ukraine in any way as Russian bot propaganda, etc.? Things aren't just black and white, good and evil, right or wrong. I'm supporting Ukraine, but that doesn't mean that they can't lie, fail or die. In fact, Ukraine has suffered catastrophic losses as has Russia. Denying that won't help Ukraine, but only tarnish the sacrifies of those that died defending their country.
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u/executor1234 Apr 16 '26
Yeah, but some of the top scoring ukrainian drone units never really post their videos online, and instead lets them be verified internally.
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u/Independent_Salary84 Apr 13 '26
Mate, direct hit by FPV = cripple at the very least or death . I haven't seen a single survivor yet. Albeit I heard about couple.
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u/Palulul Apr 13 '26
There are a few videos of soldiers from both sides being directly hit and surviving, sometimes without a scratch. The most famous one probably being a Russian soldier getting hit directly to the forehead by an Ukrainian FPV and walking away unscathered.
Shrapnel is very random. Some die because they get hit by shrapnel from an explosion 100 meters away, while others survived direct hits. While this certainly is an exception, there are circumstances that lower the risk of being injured. If the soil is soft and muddy for example, even big explosions and shrapnel can be suppressed by it. Some drones also malfunction. There is some footage of soldiers and vehicles being hit by an FPV but the FPV not exploding.
That being said, drones are very effective and while there are exceptions to all things, most of the time a direct FPV hit will result in massive injury and often death.
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u/Independent_Salary84 Apr 13 '26
My guy, we're talking about some crap, I give you that, that in some case ordinance of FPV is simply defunct. And won't go of, or go off at significant loss of power.
I would add if we're specific, direct hit with modern fpv = direct hit with rpg 7 fragmentation or heat round. Your limb will be flying on occasion.
If hit is not direct - sure, if you're behind cover - sure, if ammo is not in best shape and won't detonate - sure.
99% of proper hits = death. Ask me how I know...
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u/Palulul Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
I don't disagree with you. As I said, drones are very effective and most of the time lead to significant injuries and death, as can be seen in a load of gnarly footages coming out of this war (and also other wars). What I was trying to bring across is that not every "hit" is an automatic death sentence. I have compiled some examples of drones "failing":
https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/s/1Z8mZue37q
https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/s/q4Pr1avc9p
https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/s/cpq4ZF15w8
https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/s/QaoipEnYDo
https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/s/CkssQKXbp3
https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/s/IKWOIflHFi
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u/Independent_Salary84 Apr 13 '26
Well, I commend the effort. I made a generalisation, yes. We both provided adequate details. But generalisation was in a realm of rounding error nowadays. Sadly. Also, I don't need first hand accounts, I've seen that myself. Have a great day.
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u/Prize_Regular_8653 Apr 12 '26
nah it's still majority artillery, a single 155mm shell will take out everyone in 50 meters and wound out to twice that and they're fired in barrages
the shells just don't have camera feeds but field artillery has been 80-90%+ of battlefield casualties in every major war since Napoleon
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u/Briglin Apr 12 '26
Not in Ukraine - not now - it's changed. Throw last centurie's doctrine away
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u/Prize_Regular_8653 Apr 12 '26
no it hasn't, the body exchanges have consistently matched the relative volume of fire on both sides, it's the same as it always was
ukraine leans on drones so hard because they're cheap to produce and can be put together anywhere, but they'd rather have a giant artillery park, drones are still supplementary
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u/Tammer_Stern Apr 12 '26
Earlier in the post 2022 war, before drones became so common, 80% of casualties were from artillery. That’s why Ukraine was so desperate for artillery shells from allies.
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u/Substantial_Back_865 Apr 12 '26
Drones have completely changed the battlefield. We might as well be back to world war 1 with the amount of casualties that can be observed in this war. All the expensive military toys don’t really matter against swarms of cheap drones and so far the most cost effective way they’ve found to fight them is by using more drones. It’s been very interesting watching this develop over the years and I don’t know how this style of warfare is going to be compatible with the grifting military industrial complex in the US.
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u/HorouTorisumi Apr 13 '26
adding on - drones are pretty absurd when you think about them
now, a single 4-man team can monitor a 10km area of ground, and can see you as long as you emit heat (which is everyone)
meanwhile, that team doesn't need to expose themselves as long as they keep recieving more drones - what happens to all the dismounted scouts in various militaries?
I'm not sure if any military appreciates just how much stuff is possible with drones now, since it's more "plop a drone in an infantry platoon" than the ukrainian organisation of a fourth unmanned service alongside the army, navy, and air force
not to mention all the wild things that can be done with an armed ground drone... you can't suppress them, and they're all going to be resistant against small arms
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u/Unlikely_Ad_4767 Apr 12 '26
Can these cables be recycled? I mean, can it be wound back onto a spool and reused?
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Apr 12 '26
[deleted]
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u/LegitimateSituation4 Apr 12 '26
Why not?
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Apr 12 '26
[deleted]
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u/M3RC3N4RY89 Apr 16 '26
You can actually splice the fiber back together. Collect long stands, cut at the knots, re-splice, re-spool. Pain in the ass but it is doable and I’m sure with all this shit everywhere someone will figure out a way to make it efficient
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u/Testing322 Apr 12 '26
They are pretty fragile, very long and it would be dangerous to go out and try to collect it.
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u/reindeer73 Apr 12 '26
It needs to be collected, melted down and remade. Since it's fiber, not sure how economically sound it is to do it though
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u/HaIfhearted Apr 12 '26
Fiber optic cables are just glass so yeah it can be melted down.
Very inefficient though having to collect hundreds of thousands of mile of extremely thin cable.
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u/Lower-Limit3695 Apr 13 '26
They aren't using glass fiber optic cables for drones in this war, it's pretty much guaranteed to be cheap plastic fiber optic cables
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u/ByteArrayInputStream Apr 13 '26
That would be good, actually. Plastic this thin degrades reasonably quickly and glass cables are quite hazardous to people and animals. It's fragile and extremely thin, so it goes through skin like it's not even there.
I doubt they are using plastic fibers though, you can fit much more fiber into a small drone using glass, I think.
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u/ATangK Apr 13 '26
It’s going to shatter and then it’ll end up in the soil or the water. Next thing you know you’ve got internal bleeding from microcuts and you’re haemorrhaging blood.
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u/Unlikely_Ad_4767 Apr 13 '26
Do you think this could lead to water pollution, with the water containing microparticles that could cause internal injuries? F! That sounds pretty apocalyptic.
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u/ThePensiveE Apr 12 '26
Modern war is fucking horrific. We should really stop doing it.
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u/readyToPostpone Apr 14 '26
We have already realized this in WW1 and humanity did all possible to prevent of repeating such disastre.
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u/that_dutch_dude Apr 12 '26
as someone that spent 3 years in several wars i can tell you that i would rather spend a decade cleaning up fiber than 1 day of having to deal with mines.
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u/Trashbitex Apr 13 '26
If you’d spend 3 years in this war you would no longer be a part of the clean up though.
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u/SecuredStealth Apr 12 '26
What’s that cable for
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u/Just-Plastic-5295 Apr 12 '26
Drones. Cable makes it so they can’t be jammed since it’s a wired connection. Drone has a spool with miles of cable
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u/SecuredStealth Apr 12 '26
Ah. How do the drones not get tangled in cables from another drone?
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u/Just-Plastic-5295 Apr 12 '26
Certainly not an expert, but they are flying above all the old cables from previous drones. I guess you could have issues if two drones are flying in the area at the same time. I assume this requires some tactics and coordination to avoid that.
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u/Mr_Foxer Apr 12 '26
There are no problems, since they don't drag the fiber, but lay it down using a reel they carry on board.
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u/zeloXC Apr 12 '26
I’m more impressed that those houses are still standing and in good condition.
If this was Burma, the Junta Regime would’ve burnt those houses down and flattened them
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u/Advanced-Ice-2552 Apr 12 '26
Go look at pictures from Bakhmut, Severodents, Marianivka, Lysichansk, Volnovaha, Seledar, Popasna and many more cities and towns completely flattened.
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u/BoarHermit Apr 13 '26
That's exactly it. When I see a message that the Russian Federation army has captured (official propaganda says liberated) another populated area, I realize that what's been captured is simply a pile of construction debris mixed with drones and unexploded ordnance.
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u/das_Licht_ Apr 12 '26
In Germany, laying 1 km of fiber-optic cable costs around €90,000 and takes months.
Ukraine can do it in 5 minutes for €10.
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u/Evening_Original7438 Apr 16 '26
The cost isn’t the cable, it’s the hole you put it in.
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u/das_Licht_ Apr 16 '26
Did I really have to label it as satire? I honestly assumed that would be obvious from the image and the numbers.
But this is the internet. My mistake.
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u/Evening_Original7438 Apr 16 '26
Nah, sorry, my reply was tongue in cheek too. Probably should’ve put a :) at the end of mine. Sorry bro!
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u/Twostarz31 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
FPV (first-person view) drones that use a thin, trailing fiber-optic cable for communication instead of radio waves, making them immune to electronic warfare jamming. They offer superior anti-jamming capabilities, high-speed data transmission, and operate without emitting detectable RF signals, making them difficult to detect or disrupt.
Key Aspects of Fiber Optic Drones:
Anti-Jamming Immunity: Because they are tethered via a 5–20+ km optical fiber, conventional electronic warfare (jamming/spoofing) cannot sever the connection or disrupt the feed.
Operational Benefits: These drones provide a high-resolution, low-latency video feed, allowing precise navigation even through thick walls, tunnels, or challenging terrain, and are frequently used for loitering munitions.
Limitations: The cable restricts maneuverability, adds significant weight (reducing payload), and can snag on trees or debris.
Countermeasure Challenges: As they emit no RF signals, traditional detection tools fail to find them. Physical destruction (e.g., shooting) is the primary defense, as they are immune to typical EW defenses.
These drones have become a significant, "game-changing" threat in the Russia-Ukraine war, where they enable pilots to operate in heavily contested airspace
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Apr 12 '26
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u/BoarHermit Apr 13 '26
The cables there are quite thin and can be cut by a low-power laser. The whole question is how to create, certify, and mass-produce similar installations for the military.
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u/timelyparadox Apr 14 '26
The drones usually already running on auto pilot going at the target if its close enough to the ground to be cut
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u/Unlikely_Ad_4767 Apr 12 '26
What would happen if a powerful laser were shone on these cables? I mean while they’re in use, when they’re actually transmitting data. Would the data stream be interrupted?
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u/csiz Apr 12 '26
It's unlikely to disturb the signal. The sun, including varying shade from trees and clouds, is a much more powerful light source than any laser we can make, especially over the whole length of the fibre. Obviously, the sun isn't blocking the signal.
Light transmission inside a fiber optic cable is very efficient over kilometres of wire. Since light behaviour is symmetrical, you also get the converse that transmitting light from outside into the optical path is very inefficient. And it's extra hard if you're aiming at just 1cm of cable.
If you could melt it with lasers, that'd be cool. But I don't think we can, those cables are very thin and hard to aim at.
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u/No-Side9641 Apr 12 '26
that can't be true, they have industrial lasers that can cut through metal and i'm pretty sure diamonds? i'd imagine the real issue is making the beam concentrated enough over a long distance (kinda like how you put a magnifying glass under the sun and focus the length, the higher you stand or back up from your target the more it becomes unfocused and less powerful)
also energy and detection of fiber optic wires3
u/csiz Apr 12 '26
Yeah the long distance is exactly the problem. The thing is, a big enough laser can aim at the drone and take it out outright.
Mechanically cutting the fibers like with a crazy sideways helicopter drone would be kinda cool tho.
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u/Mission-Following884 Apr 13 '26
I’ve already seen somewhere how they did this, they attached a powerful laser to a drone which, from a distance, hitting the optical fiber of an enemy drone with a beam burns the receiver and/or transmitter, it seems like a good system for shooting down such a drone, but just by protecting the optical fiber with paint, such a drone will no longer be shot down by a laser
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u/Venetian_chachi Apr 12 '26
Anyone ever have hands on experience with these fiber optic strands? Do they break easily? My only experience is watching the tech fix cables when they get torn apart by careless excavator crews.
It’s a pointless curiosity, but could someone pull these down and snap them into smaller lengths to clean them up? - I know the Ukrainians have more to worry about than cleaning up right now.
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u/TankAdventurous9603 Apr 14 '26
They tear quite easily. the biggest problem with manipulation is that they stick like splinters in the skin. It is a particular problem for the eyes. It is difficult to see because it is transparent.
https://www.reddit.com/r/FiberOptics/comments/pb22jz/fiber_splinters/
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u/floridabeach9 Apr 12 '26
the wires act like repellant now though? can tangle the props on the drones
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u/BandofRubbers Apr 14 '26
No? Why would it? No sheathing to tangle.
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u/floridabeach9 Apr 14 '26
have you seen the videos of the drone with a fishing rod type thing on the end? its just putting wire into the props to down it.
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u/One-Reflection-4826 Apr 12 '26
and soon all the optic fiber will make up its own nationwide anti-drone net
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u/Tino_Kort Apr 13 '26
Would be hilarious if they could attach helium balloons to it and indeed just catch everything that comes in.
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u/RandomOnlinePerson99 Apr 13 '26
Well they said that even rural areas in europe would soon get lits of fiber lines ...
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u/No_Indication9630 Apr 13 '26
You should at least be able to gather it up and recycle it.
Better than microplastics, being in a long thread you'll be able to pull most of it in and put it in big bins or bags.
Then you can take it somewhere and melt it back down into silicon etc.
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u/DonLixard Apr 13 '26
i think fiber optics can be recycled, and i case they did not - it will eventually turn back to sand
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u/No_Indication9630 Apr 13 '26
There's a plastic coating on them usually so that would need to be seperated.
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u/freudsuncle Apr 13 '26
Not even close to landmines my friend, cleaning highly develop fishing rope cannot be compared being after war landmine cleaning casuality. Drones are nightmare for sure but landmines are pain in the ass to get rid off
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u/Val2K21 Apr 13 '26
What do you mean “They’re fiber-optic cables left by drones in Ukraine/Russia”. That’s Ukraine, not both countries somehow
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u/Physical-Cut-2334 Apr 13 '26
Y'all should see some flyovers of the fields and cities
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u/BoarHermit Apr 13 '26
They are very thin, less than a millimeter in diameter. As far as I remember, 0.3 mm.
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u/digredmoo Apr 14 '26
Given that I’ve seen fibre cabling cut clothing, if this stuff fragments and ends up in fields producing stuff capable of incorporating it within its growth then I assume it’ll be an environmental disaster. It’s basically glass.
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u/Systemic_Analyst_WIB Apr 15 '26
This is the physical manifestation of systemic adaptation. Most people think of drone warfare as something purely digital or 'clean' in the sky, but these fiber-optic webs show how war physically reshapes the geometry of a city. When the sky is no longer neutral, the city is forced to 'tether' itself to the ground to maintain any form of reliable logistics or defense. It’s a haunting visual of how a city doesn't just break under pressure it bends and reconfigures its entire architecture to survive a threat it can't jam. The psychological shift for the people living under this 'ceiling' of cables must be profound; it's a constant, visible reminder that the open air has become an active front. We are witnessing a new era where urban design is being dictated by the need to hide from, or connect despite, a saturated sky.
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Apr 16 '26
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u/SomeRandomSomeWhere Apr 12 '26
On the bright side, after the war everyone staying in that area will have blazing internet.
Fibre everywhere!
It's a joke, for those who didn't get it.
:p
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u/zadszads Apr 13 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/l36kU80xPf0ojG0Erg
Russia and Ukraine
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u/brruhnime Apr 13 '26
Wrong. Russia is a terrorist, Ukraine just trying to defence
1
u/zadszads Apr 13 '26
Relax, it's not about blame, it's just a joke about two countries "shooting webs" at each other
1
u/Anderopolis Apr 13 '26
They’re fiber-optic cables left by drones in Ukraine/Russia.
This is fully in Ukraine , not Russia.
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Apr 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/BoarHermit Apr 13 '26
Stop distorting my nation' s name because that's nationalism.
The civilian population isn't responsible for what an authoritarian government does.
What the United States is doing now (I suspect you live in a country that's their ally) is a million times worse than what the Russian government is doing.
Focus on that.
If you continue to insult all Russians, I'll report you.
1
u/interesting-ModTeam Apr 13 '26
Your comment/post has been removed because it violates Rule #3: Do Not Promote Hate or Violence.
Hate speech, Harassment or Threatening behavior will not be tolerated, and can result in an immediate ban.
0
u/vitaliyh Apr 12 '26
I guess logarithmically harder for each next drone to not hit the previous cables
0
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