Latest news with #TylerHicks
Time of India
3 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Drone attacks are the new front in war. NATO is trying to catch up.
FILE -- A Ukrainian drone pilot in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine on April 24, 2025. Assaults in Russia and Ukraine have shown major military powers that they are unprepared for evolving forms of warfare, and need to adapt. (Tyler Hicks/The New York Times) Recent drone attacks in Ukraine and Russia have exposed Western nations' vulnerability to this new form of warfare. Ukraine's successful drone strikes on Russian air bases highlight NATO's need to assess its own defenses. Both countries are investing heavily in drone technology, revealing a shift in military strategy and preparedness for future conflicts. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The drones attacks that have filled the skies over Ukraine and Russia the past few weeks have not only cemented a new era of warfare, they have also shown Western countries how ill-prepared they are for Sunday, Ukraine launched more than 100 drones it had smuggled into Russia to strike air bases there, damaging or destroying as many as 20 strategic aircraft thousands of miles apart. That sent defense officials in some NATO nations rushing to assess whether they, too, could be vulnerable, if an adversary using drones could severely hobble a big military power -- be it Russia, China or even the United States."This is more than an isolated incident -- it's a glimpse into the character of future conflict, where war won't be confined to neatly drawn front lines," said James Patton Rogers, a drone warfare expert at Cornell University. He said the urgent question for NATO, after "an impressive attack by Ukraine," is to determine the vulnerabilities of its own air bases, bombers and critical the Ukrainian barrage, Russia had intensified a near-daily deluge of long-range drones to attack military and civilian targets across Ukraine, demonstrating an ability to launch thousands of uncrewed aircraft as quickly as they are built, experts said. By comparison, defense manufacturers in the United States and Europe have struggled for more than three years to ramp up weapons knows it has much to year, NATO opened a joint training center with Ukrainian forces in Poland to share lessons from Russia's invasion. Ukraine's military is the largest (aside from Russia's) and most battled-tested in Europe, even if it is struggling to maintain territory in its border the same time, much of the military alliance is still focused on warfare of the past, and unable to keep up with an unending stream of cyberattacks and other hybrid activity that threatens energy infrastructure, financial institutions and government databases lying far beyond traditional front protects its aircraft with more than 3,000 hardened shelters, while the United States has exposed tarmacs "and assumptions," Simone Ledeen, a top Pentagon policy official during President Donald Trump's first term, wrote on social media after Ukraine's broad drone attack."A well-timed swarm could blind us before we're airborne," Ledeen U.S. military reported 350 drone sightings across about 100 military installations last year, Gen. Gregory Guillot, the head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, told lawmakers in February.A new government review of Britain's defense capabilities, released this week, made clear that other alliance members are also aware of their forced to fight in the next few years, the review said, Britain and its allies could find themselves battling adversaries with newer weapons and technology. It called for heavy investment in air and land drones, including stockpiling one-way attack drones -- those that kill by smashing into their targets and exploding."Whoever gets new technology into the hands of their armed forces the quickest will win," the review Russia and Ukraine have spent billions of dollars to build their respective drone fleets since the war years ago, Ukraine produced about 800,000 drones; this year it is projected to churn out more than 5 million, said Kateryna Bondar, a former adviser to Ukraine's government who is now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies research group in Washington. Among them are weapons known as " missile drones " because they can purportedly fly as far as 1,800 last weekend, before the surprise attack on Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine told allies he hoped to scale up his military's drone program with additional financial backing. "Our operations show the impact that investment can have, especially in drones," he agreed, pledging Wednesday to help Ukraine procure 100,000 drones this year -- 10 times more than initially which is projected to spend more than 7% of its gross domestic product on defense this year, has saturated Ukraine's skies and overwhelmed its air defenses with more than 1,000 drones each week since March, experts say. Most of them are Geran-series drones -- Russia's homegrown version of the Iranian-designed long-range Shahed attack aircraft -- some of which cost as little as $20,000 to far cheaper than, for example, a $1 million long-range Storm Shadow missile, the Geran drones are still likely costing Russia several millions of dollars each day."If they can launch hundreds of these a day, that means they have to manufacture hundreds of these a day as well," said Samuel Bendett, an expert on Russian drones and other weapons at the Center for Naval uptick has coincided with ceasefire talks Trump is pushing as Russia seeks to seize more territory in Ukraine before any settlement is also aims to remind the world of Russia's enduring might -- even if it still suffers setbacks like Ukraine's weekend strikes."No one, really, in Europe is prepared to adequately handle this type of threat," Bendett said.
The Star
16-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Drones of defiance
A drone workshop in a basement in Ukraine. Should the peace talks fail, the drone initiative is likely to take on more importance than ever. — Tyler Hicks/The New York Times THE Ukrainian soldiers rose in the predawn, stretching, rubbing their eyes and rolling up sleeping bags in a basement hideout near the front line in the country's east. Their day would not take them far afield. Most stayed in the basement, working with keyboards and joysticks controlling drones.
The Star
16-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Peace eludes shattered Sumy
A THICK, roiling cloud of black smoke spiralled up from a parking lot of burning cars, as residents stood dazed on the pavement and emergency vehicles tore past, sirens wailing. Then the whine of another drone. 'Shelter! Shelter!' a police officer bellowed, as the faint buzz of a Russian exploding drone drifted down from the sky. People bolted. Firefighters battling a blaze after a Russian drone struck a parking lot in Sumy; (above) mourners at an impromptu memorial for Palm Sunday attack victims. — Tyler Hicks/The New York Times 'It's like this every day,' said Mayor Artem Kobzar, who had been visiting the site in Sumy, northeastern Ukraine, and dashed into the doorway of a nearby apartment block. 'Everybody in Ukraine wants peace,' he added. 'But in Sumy, we don't have a day or night of calm.' That airstrike occurred on April 13, a day after two ballistic missiles slammed into a residential neighbourhood on Palm Sunday just after 10am, killing 34 civilians – including two children – and injuring 117 others, according to the Sumy City Council. The wreckage of an apartment struck by Russian missiles in Sumy. — Tyler Hicks/The New York Times Russia claimed it had targeted a military installation. A Ukrainian regional governor confirmed that a military awards ceremony had taken place that day. The Palm Sunday attack came more than two months after US President Donald Trump initiated ceasefire talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But after the Sumy strike, many in Ukraine and abroad now question whether those talks are collapsing. Preparations for a potential new Russian ground assault in the region are now under way. In March, Trump paused military and intelligence aid to Ukraine, pushing for ceasefire discussions while offering Russia incentives of renewed economic cooperation. Ukraine agreed to an unconditional truce, while Russia continues to demand sanctions relief and other concessions. Rescue workers searching the rubble of a building destroyed in the Palm Sunday missile attack in Sumy. — Tyler Hicks/The New York Times In remarks from the Oval Office, Trump placed blame on former US president Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin. 'The war wouldn't have started if Biden were competent, and if Zelenskyy were competent – and I don't know that he is,' Trump said. 'We had a rough session with this guy. He just kept asking for more and more.' Still, Trump claimed: 'I want to stop the killing, and I think we're doing well in that regard.' European leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the civilian deaths. Trump, speaking later to reporters aboard Air Force One, called the strike a 'horrible thing', adding, 'I was told they made a mistake.' Zelenskyy, however, pointed to the attack as proof that Russia is not serious about peace. 'Ukraine responded positively to the US proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire,' he said. 'Russia remains focused on continuing the war.' Drone strikes are intensifying across the country, and Sumy – just 30km from the Russian border – is particularly vulnerable. The city has become a tragic symbol of both frontline exposure and diplomatic failure. Life here is lived on edge. A woman arrives on Monday, April 14, 2025, to lay flowers at an impromptu memorial to those killed in the Palm Sunday missile attack on Sumy, Ukraine. Threats of air attacks repeatedly disrupted the cleanup work at the site of Sunday's attack, a sprawl of burned cars and splays of brick on the sidewalks. (Tyler Hicks/The New York Times) Ancient churches and leafy boulevards are interrupted by bombed-out apartment blocks and the thrum of drones overhead. 'Few believe in a ceasefire,' said one resident. At the Palm Sunday attack site, a backhoe scraped through rubble as rescuers searched for more victims. The scene was apocalyptic: charred cars, shattered glass, crumbling masonry, bloodstains and ash. Bomb alerts repeatedly interrupted the work. Mourners stepped around debris to lay flowers at a makeshift memorial. Few here accept the idea of a 'mistake', as Trump suggested. The two missiles hit three minutes apart, in a 'double-tap' strike – a tactic designed to maximise casualties by targeting emergency workers and survivors. 'It's horrifying,' said Oleh Strilka, a spokesman for Ukraine's emergency services. 'They fire a second missile once help arrives.' He described variations of this tactic across the region. One such strike in March hit a hospital bomb shelter entrance, trapping people inside. Another involved a drone loitering overhead to target fire trucks responding to blazes started by artillery. Fire crews in some areas have stopped responding. On Palm Sunday, amid dust and shrieking alarms, Viktoria Rudyka, 37, knelt on a blood-slicked pavement, pressing her hands over a gaping wound in her six-year-old daughter's chest. A passing car stopped and rushed them to hospital. Seconds later, the second missile hit, raining debris on the vehicle. Doctors later removed a metal shard from the child's lung. Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov claimed the missile strike hit a meeting of Ukrainian and Western military officials. Sumy's governor, Volodymyr Artyukh, said he had attended a ceremony honouring soldiers, suggesting that military personnel were present. The drone strike the next day didn't involve a double tap, but the pattern of repeat attacks has left residents traumatised and distrustful of peace efforts. Four employees of the Be Happy coffee shop walked together to the strike site, laying pink and white roses where a cook and a pastry chef had been killed. They sobbed and held each other. 'There are no signs of a ceasefire in Sumy,' said Diana Khaitova, 22, a server who found the bodies of her colleagues that day. 'People here are just always afraid.' — ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times
New York Times
20-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Monday Briefing: A Broken Truce in Ukraine
Image A Ukrainian position in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, on Friday. Credit... Tyler Hicks/The New York Times Ukraine and Russia yesterday accused each other of violating an Easter truce declared by President Vladimir Putin on Saturday afternoon. The cease-fire, announced as lasting 30 hours, appeared to be a gambit by Putin to show the U.S. that Russia was serious about peace. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who had agreed to abide by the truce so long as Russia did, said that Russian troops had fired artillery, ambushed troops and used drones. Russia's defense ministry said that its forces had observed the truce, and accused Ukraine of violating it with drones and nighttime attacks. A Ukrainian drone unit commander said that the fighting in eastern Ukraine during the cease-fire was similar to how it had been since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. 'So in reality, there was no cease-fire at all,' he said. U.S. threat to move on: On Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that if the U.S. could not make progress in ending the war, it would walk away. The remarks appeared to pile pressure on Ukraine. Minerals deal: President Trump has said that he expects to sign a full minerals deal with Ukraine this week. Negotiations on the deal stalled after a blowup weeks ago between the leaders in the Oval Office. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
24-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Tuesday Briefing: The Ukraine War's 3rd Anniversary
Image Bomb damage in Kostiantynivka, Ukraine, on Monday. Credit... Tyler Hicks/The New York Times President Trump met with President Emmanuel Macron of France at the White House yesterday at a head-spinning time for Western alliances. It was the third anniversary of the war in Ukraine, and peace talks with Russia have sidelined Kyiv and European leaders. Here's the latest. Trump told reporters while sitting next to the French president that the fighting could be over 'within weeks,' and he suggested that he may visit Moscow as soon as this spring. He refused to call President Vladimir Putin of Russia a dictator. The U.S. opposed a European effort at the U.N. to condemn Russia and call for it to immediately withdraw from Ukraine. The Trump administration introduced its own resolution, which softened the language and called only for an end to the war, essentially siding with Moscow over longtime allies. Analysis: Zelensky has mostly played weak hands wisely during the war, but his approach to Trump has resulted in hostility. Is his strategy ultimately harming Ukraine?
