The most powerful weapon of this phase of the war. It will destroy up to 85 percent of Russian positions, but there is a catch

Different types of drones are beginning to dominate the battle scene in Ukraine. FPV drones are the most used, whose camera footage is watched live by a person and with the help of a live image of the terrain, they can locate enemy units and even attack them at a distance of several kilometers.

“We are currently witnessing the use of drones in Ukraine on an unimaginable scale, we are really talking about tens and hundreds of thousands of drones on the battlefield,” European Council on Foreign Relations researcher Ulrike Franke told AFP.

Even Kyiv itself sees great potential in drones used on the battlefield, which is evidenced by the fact that it allocated 1.15 billion euros from the state budget for 2024 for unmanned aircraft. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the country would produce “one million drones” this year, with a special drone industry created in February. London, which will provide the country with 10,000 drones, and Paris are also planning to send unmanned aircraft to Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities claim that about 100,000 to 120,000 drones are needed on the front line every month. “Drones are able to mimic many of the functions of artillery and missiles at a fraction of the cost,” explained Mykola Bielieskov of the American think tank Atlantic Council. While a small commercial drone costs only a few hundred euros, a simple anti-tank missile, artillery shell or remote-controlled ammunition costs several thousand, sometimes much more.

But experts warn that drones cannot fully replace artillery. “Ukrainians use drones because they can make or buy them, but it’s not ideal,” Franke pointed out. “Even a large number of small drones cannot match the power of artillery fire,” added Stacie Pettyjohn in a study by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a US security think tank. Drones can also often be jammed by electronic countermeasures. The New York Times reported that even because of this, more than two-thirds of drones miss their target when struck.

At the same time, in recent months, Russia has caught up with the Ukrainians in terms of the number of drones. While in 2022 Kyiv had a major advantage in the field of commercial drones, now that advantage is gone, according to Pettyjohn. “The Russian military quickly realized the usefulness of commercial quadcopters, and volunteer groups were formed to provide drones and the necessary training to frontline soldiers,” added Pettyjohn.

According to the security expert, although drones offer new possibilities, they ultimately make it difficult to “concentrate forces, achieve surprise and conduct offensive operations”, so they will not cause a “really revolutionary change” in the end.

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