On stage

FF

Francis Farrell

Moderator · Kyiv Independent

RL

Rob Lee

FPRI

FL

Štefan Füle

ex-Czech Ambassador to NATO

★

Serving frontline drone operators

names withheld for security

Front-line drone operators and analysts described how UAVs now cause the great majority of casualties, forcing infantry to hold positions for months, extending kill zones up to ~30km, and shifting logistics almost entirely to ground and bomber drones. Panellists detailed fibre-optic drones that defeat jamming, layered electronic-warfare defences, the Russian "Rubicon" units, glide-bomb threats, and the UAV-versus-UAV fight becoming potentially decisive. A recurring message: Western militaries must come to Ukraine to learn these lessons firsthand.

The substance

Key takeaways

1

Rob Lee (FPRI) delivered the statistic that reframes the whole war: artillery caused about 80% of casualties in 2023, but by 2025 UAVs cause roughly 80–90% on both sides — a shift that has forced infantry to hold positions for months without rotation and pushed nearly all front-line logistics onto ground drones and heavy bomber UAVs.

2

A serving drone-reconnaissance pilot in the Pokrovsk direction described the kill zone extending to 30 km behind the line and roads 30 km back now needing overhead nets — and warned of "sleeper" FPV drones that wait for a valuable target — while insisting Ukraine can detect and destroy targets from 0 to 300 km in about 20 minutes, and pleading with allies to "just come and learn" rather than theorise.

3

A serving special-operations officer captured the psychological toll of the "surreal, Mad Max" battlefield: unjammable fibre-optic drones now sit silently in dense forest and strike within five seconds, forcing constant vigilance that removes even the possibility of resting during an operation — pushing soldiers to "the edge of human ability to sustain stress."

4

Rob Lee argued the war has become a UAV-versus-UAV fight that is potentially decisive: when a Ukrainian brigade can use its drones effectively, Russia struggles to advance, but Russia's well-funded Rubicon unit deliberately hunts Ukrainian drone teams and logistics to open narrow breakthroughs — and he cautioned that when the war ends, Russian FPV/UAV expertise will spread worldwide via mercenaries, a threat the West is unprepared for.

5

Štefan Füle (former Czech NATO ambassador) warned that drones are only "the peak of the iceberg" of a shift to autonomous platforms, and delivered a blunt strategic alarm: Russia is exercising the use of tactical nuclear weapons to halt NATO expeditionary forces reaching the Baltics, so the West faces "a common enemy but still no common strategy" — and after three years he is still fighting technology-transfer bureaucracy despite a signed Czech-Ukrainian memorandum.

In their words

Key quotes

“

The UAV-versus-UAV fight is becoming potentially decisive.

Rob Lee

“

I myself consider drones as representing only the peak of the iceberg of a huge transformation... We have a common enemy, but we still do not have a common strategy for how to defend ourselves against them.

Štefan Füle

Full transcript

The complete transcript of this session is being prepared for publication after a review pass.

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