For many people, the war in Ukraine is no longer an issue. However, the news from the front is increasingly encouraging for the Western bloc. In turn, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proved to President Donald Trump once again that Ukraine does have the cards to win the war.
In addition to maintaining the front line, Ukraine has focused on a strategy using home-made drones and missiles to attack Russia’s economic rear. In April, Ukraine destroyed the refineries of Tuapse, Yaroslav, Kirishi and NORSI. However, Russian refineries in the Caucasus and the Urals have been under attack for more than a year.
At the same time, many Russian power plants have been targeted by drone and missile attacks. The Russian air campaign to destroy civilian infrastructure and the power grid to force the Ukrainian population to withstand the winter cold without artificial heating has now been reversed, with Ukrainians destroying the Russian power grid and other key infrastructure buildings.
The real change of strategy that puts Ukraine in the winning position is to attack the ports from which the Russian Federation exports crude oil to its allies in the rest of the world. The ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk in the Baltic Sea have been destroyed, leaving only one oil pipeline to the east for export of crude with China.
But that’s not all. Ukraine has achieved a technological and military milestone that is more of a science fiction film than reality. They managed to take up Russian positions without using human infantry.
So, you will surely ask, what did the Ukrainians use?
Battle droids. Yeah, like those in Terminator or Star Wars. At the moment they aren’t so advanced, but the TW 12.7 developed by DevDroid has already proven to be able to hold positions for whole days without recourse to ordinary infantry. Now Ukraine has managed to mount an offensive with these “unmanned platforms.”
Ukraine hasn’t only made a tactical and technological innovation; it has created a new era for the world’s military history. The ground drones they are using, and with which they are defeating Russia, are the future that science fiction has been imagining for almost 50 years.
Ukraine has proven that it is not only possible, but feasible.
Four years ago, when the war began, the Ukrainian army and Zelenskyy’s government found the need to use weapons from more than 100 years ago and borrow all kinds of weaponry from Europe and the U.S. All this time, until about two years ago, Ukrainians have been fighting with American Stinger, Javelins and F-16s, German Leopards, and ammunition, supplements and economic aid from almost all countries in the Western hemisphere.
Yet, against all odds, it is now the U.S. and its allies who are asking Ukraine for help, with Kyiv now leading the world in everything to do with drones in military forces.
Until now it had been a purely aerial war, because with this new advance, they have achieved a revolution in how wars are fought.
Ukraine is betting everything on having its own droid army. Not only to attack, also to manage logistics on the front line, saving manpower for tasks where humans are absolutely necessary.
On the other hand, the refusal of the Trump administration to continue collaborating with Ukraine in the war and with NATO in general makes this innovation increasingly distant from the U.S. Beyond the immense power of the U.S. military-industrial complex, Ukrainian drones have the advantage of combat experience and adaptation to diverse field needs.
Any program to replicate the Ukrainian droid army would start at a disadvantage. And today, more than ever, we know that drones are the future of war, for better or worse.
Since the war in Ukraine began, the use of typical recreational quadcopter drones for military purposes has become popular worldwide. From Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen, to Mexican and Colombian cartels, using these machines to carry out effective kamikaze attacks at minimal cost.
For the first time since World War I, the U.S. will not be at the forefront of the latest military technological advances, all because of a very bad policy decision by the current administration, which may currently cost a lot.
