Drone warfare in the Ukraine war
A drone pilot prepares a Stalker first-person view (fpv) drone during tests at an undisclosed location on 10 July Photograph: Tetiana Dzhafarova/AFP/Getty Images
Ukrainian servicemen install anti-drone nets over a road at an undisclosed location in the eastern Donetsk region on 8 July. Fishing nets have also been used in certain parts of the drone-free corridor Photograph: Roman Pilipey/AFP/Getty Images
A Ukrainian serviceman stands guard with a shotgun as his fellow soldiers install anti-drone nets Photograph: Roman Pilipey/AFP/Getty Images
A street protected by the anti-drone nets of various types in the city of Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia region, on 15 July Photograph: Press service of the 65th Mechanized Brigade/EPA
Two soldiers from a Ukrainian army anti-aircraft artillery brigade scan their sector for Shahed drones on Ukraine's southern frontline on 8 July, the night Russia launched the largest combined airstrikes since it began its full-scale invasion. The unit operates a truck-mounted ZU-23-2 air defence system with a twin 23-calibre gun capable of targeting objects flying below 2,500 metres. Russia has been sending swarms of drones and many decoys to overwhelm Ukrainian defences. New types of Shaheds (Geran 2) are able to fly at higher altitude and are resistant to GPS jamming Photograph: Maria Senovilla/EPA
Ukrainian air defence system operators check for threats on Ukraine's southern frontline at an undisclosed location on 8 July. The unit operates a Ukrainian 9K33 Osa manpads (man-portable air defence system) that works with guided missiles, capable of hitting high-flying objects, and is one of the most widely used by the Russian and Ukrainian armies in the war Photograph: Maria Senovilla/EPA
Ukrainian air defence system operators during the night when Russia launched the largest combined airstrike since it began its full-scale invasion Photograph: Maria Senovilla/EPA
Myhola Mondrayev, a farmer in Sumy region, who serves three days a week in a territorial defence unit, moves a Gerbera decoy drone that was shot down by his unit. Even 30 miles from the frontline, Russian border drones are a persistent threat to Ukrainian farmers Photograph: Peter Beaumont/The Guardian
An agricultural worker talks on the phone while carrying a shotgun to protect the driver of a combine harvester from Russian FPV drones in the field near Orikhiv, a few miles from the frontline Photograph: Ukrinform/Shutterstock
A Russian Geran 2 drone attacks a building during Russia's massive missile and drone attack in Kyiv on 17 June Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/AP
A residential building damaged after a Russian drone attack in Odesa on 28 June. The attack on Ukraine's southern port city killed two people and wounded 14, including children, local authorities said. Moscow has stepped up drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, and peace talks initiated by the US to end the three-year conflict have stalled Photograph: Oleksandr Gimanov/AFP/Getty Images
A Ukrainian officer points to a thermobaric charge from a downed Russian drone in a research laboratory in an undisclosed location in Ukraine on 14 November 2024. Russia has reportedly upgraded the Iranian Shaheed drone, which is now produced under licence in Tatarstan to increase its altitude and make it harder to intercept. Newer versions are also harder to electronically jam and some are fitted with thermobaric warheads as well as being able to operate autonomously through AI Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/AP
A Ukrainian serviceman from the anti-drone mobile fire team prepares to shoot down a Russian drone flying toward Kharkiv, with a ZU-23 anti-aircraft twin-barrelled autocannon, in the late evening of 2 July Photograph: Sergey Kozlov/EPA
An anti-aircraft cannon fires towards Russian drones and missiles during an overnight shift in Kharkiv region on 2 July Photograph: Ukrainian Armed Forces/Reuters
Soldiers from a fibre-optic drone unit of the 93rd Brigade test drones before heading to the front lines in Donetsk oblast on 17 June. The drones, which operate without radio signals, are harder to detect or jam and use fibre-optic cables to transmit high-quality images from a distance Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Service members of the 13th operative purpose brigade 'Khartiia' of the National Guard of Ukraine check a Ukrainian-made Leleka reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle before its launch near the frontline on 20 July Photograph: Serhii Korovainyi/Reuters
Soldiers from a fibre-optic drone unit of the 93rd brigade test the drones before going to the front on 17 June Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
A Ukrainian soldier checks a Leleka drone before an exercise. The drone can fly for up to an hour and a half, covering more than 50 miles (80km). Its electric motors are quiet, and yet Russian units can spot the aircraft as soon as it takes off. Many drones are shot down, soldiers say. After 100 flights, the small aircraft must be overhauled
Photograph: Dpa Picture Alliance/Alamy
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BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
The Inquiry How are drones changing the landscape of modern warfare?
When the war in Ukraine began back in February 2022, the remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle or drone as its commonly known, was peripheral to the conflict. But three years on, the drone in all its shapes and sizes has taken on a central role in this battle, in the air, on land and at sea, for surveillance, reconnaissance, combat and other purposes. Now drone technology is evolving even further into the area of autonomous weapons. But whilst the drone can offer greater strategic and operational flexibility and a possible reduction in the number of military casualties, there are concerns that the drone, particularly in Ukraine's case, has prolonged the war. Only last year the United Nations reported that 118 countries now had military drones, along with at least 65 non-state actors. And as an increasing number of countries have begun to manufacture and export their own array of military drones, many are concerned about how drone technology is presenting a big challenge in terms of defensive measures. So, on this week's Inquiry, we're asking 'How are drones changing the landscape of modern warfare? Contributors: James Patton Rogers, Author and Executive Director, Brooks Tech Policy Institute, Cornell University, New York State, USA. Dr Oleksandra Molloy, Senior Lecturer in Aviation, University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia Stacie Pettyjohn, Director of the Defence Programme, Centre for A New American Security, Washington DC. USA. Dr. Elke Schwarz, Professor of Political Theory, Queen Mary University, London, UK Presenter: Gary O'Donoghue Producer: Jill Collins Researcher: Maeve Schaffer Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Toby James Production Management Assistant: Liam Morrey Image credit SOPA via Getty Images
The Independent
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This is a moment for European leaders to decide what they want
Notwithstanding the warmth of the embrace when Volodymyr Zelensky left his talks with the prime minister in Downing Street, the president of Ukraine has been left isolated and, disgracefully, out in the cold as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meet in Alaska to discuss the fate of his country. It may be that there can be no settlement on Ukraine without Ukraine, as European leaders and Mr Zelensky himself tried to tell President Trump during their virtual meeting. But the framework for that settlement will unquestionably be constructed far away from Kyiv. Sir Keir Starmer was right to put on such a public display of solidarity with his friend Mr Zelensky. His contribution to the peace process has been valuable. He has also leveraged his own mutually respectful relationship with Mr Trump to the benefit of Ukraine and European security. He will need to maintain that pressure in the coming weeks, because these are going to be worrying times for all those who have backed the right of the people of Ukraine to determine their own destiny, and have hoped for Russian aggression to be left unrewarded. Of the two men in whose hands rest the future prospects for peace in Europe and the wider world, it is clearly the Russian leader who has the clearer idea of what he wants and how to get it. In the first place, he has already secured one goal – to be treated as a co-equal partner of the United States in settling the dispute. Europe, including Britain, is also absent from the Alaska summit, and the 'optics' of the Trump-Putin meeting can only boost Russian prestige. In agreeing to this summit, President Trump has instantly transformed Putin from the pariah leader of a rogue state into a global statesman welcomed on American soil. Mr Trump was irritated when Emmanuel Macron pointed out to him the great prize he was handing to Putin, but it is the truth. As to Putin's strategic aims, they remain unchanged since he launched his unprovoked invasion in February 2022, and indeed since he annexed Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine in 2014. He wants Ukraine. All of it. The Russian leader will use all of the means at his disposal to secure this, as part of a wider and undisguised plan to restore as much as he can of the territories lost after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990. Sometimes, as now, it involves diplomacy. At other moments, it means a military operation. It always involves mendacity – and Putin has betrayed every agreement he has ever signed with Ukraine. With the Russian meatgrinder making its slow, incremental advances on the front line, Putin has the luxury of knowing, or at least believing, that he is in a win-win situation. If the talks succeed and lead to changed borders, inevitably to Russia's advantage, that will amount to success for Putin personally. It will mean that the substantial gains he has made are de facto established for the longer term, and that is more than sufficient for the time being. Whether any agreement involves 'land swaps', mineral deals, future 'security guarantees' or anything else, the Russian Federation will be larger, and Ukraine weaker, than was the case before the war started. Aggression will be rewarded, and the rule of international law set aside. It may not be what Putin dreamed of when he launched his 'special military operation', but he will gladly declare victory. As a bonus, he might find that the US bullies Ukraine into renouncing its ambition to join the European Union and Nato, and that the only foreign troops allowed near the new frontier will be a token force of useless United Nations 'peacekeepers'. Soon after such a deal is made, the US will lift its sanctions (Mr Trump will expect Europe to follow suit), and the attempts to make more lucrative commercial deals with Russia will resume. The Russian war machine can retool on the basis of resumed trade and economic growth. If the talks 'fail', then Putin will simply carry on bombing Ukrainian civilians and sacrificing 1,000 young Russian lives every week, as Russia absorbs Ukraine village by village, town by town. Mr Trump threatens 'very severe' consequences if a ceasefire is not agreed. Yet, confusingly, he also talks about the summit as a mere 'listening exercise', a 'feeling out' of possibilities, and suggests it will be followed by a much more important second summit, perhaps including Mr Zelensky, perhaps not. It is hard to believe Mr Trump has the knowledge or the desire to sit around with Putin discussing the fate of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, which is probably just as well. The Trump school of summitry is to do things in reverse – the ceremonial, symbolic handshakes come first, while the detailed work by the diplomatic 'sherpas' follows later. This is obviously not going to be to Ukraine's advantage, or that of the US, especially if the fighting is allowed to continue. Mr Trump's aims in this exercise aren't clear, though a rapprochement with Russia is probably still an ambition. This is a moment, too, when European leaders have to decide what they want. The goal of a fully free and sovereign Ukraine, with all of its territory restored, is probably unrealistic, or at least until the Russian economy collapses. But Russian domination at the border of the EU is also unthinkable. How willing, in other words, is the 'coalition of the willing', including powers outside Europe, going to be to continue to arm and defend Ukraine? It is a question that few seem ready to face up to – and one on which Sir Keir has to continue to take a lead.
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