Since the start of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine eleven years ago, military training has been a core element of Western support for the Ukrainian armed forces. As Moscow’s invasion has escalated into the largest European war since World War II, relations between Ukraine and its partners have become more of a two-way street. While Ukrainian troops continue to train with Western instructors, it is now increasingly clear that NATO also has much to learn from Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military has undergone significant changes over the past three years of full-scale war with Russia, becoming the largest and most effective fighting force in Europe. Innovation has played a key role in this process, as Ukraine has relied on the country’s dynamic technology sector and traditionally strong defense industry to counter Russia’s overwhelming advantage in both manpower and firepower. This has resulted in a military capable of developing and deploying cutting-edge military technology at a speed that no Western country with its much more bureaucratic procurement cycles can match.
Ukraine’s innovative approach to defense is most evident in the country’s ability to produce and deploy a wide range of drones. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the Ukrainian military’s experience has underscored the growing dominance of drones on the modern battlefield and redefined our understanding of drone warfare in ways that will shape military doctrines around the world for years to come.
The most important tool in Ukraine’s drone arsenal is its growing fleet of first-person view (FPV) drones. These drones serve in many ways as the infantry of drone warfare. They have become the central pillar of Ukraine’s military effort, inflicting up to 80 percent of battlefield casualties in Russia and allowing it to hold the front lines even when Ukrainian forces are short of artillery shells.
Ukrainian production of FPV drones has grown rapidly in recent years, and domestic companies have also gradually moved away from their initial reliance on imported components. By early 2025, Ukraine was reportedly producing 200,000 FPV drones per month. They are cheap to produce and capable of destroying tanks and other military equipment worth millions of dollars.
Russia is also relentlessly adapting to technological changes on the battlefield, creating a daily race for innovation that runs parallel to the real battles on the front lines of war. The dominance of FPV drones has led to a variety of countermeasures, ranging from the widespread use of nets and so-called “cop cages” to increasingly sophisticated electronic jamming and blocking of signals. In response, both Russia and Ukraine are turning to fiber-optic drones, which are immune to jamming technologies.
As the full-scale war approaches its fourth summer, drone tactics continue to evolve. Over the past year, Ukraine has sought to establish a 15-kilometer kill zone patrolled by drones along the conflict’s front lines, making it extremely difficult to mass troops for major offensive operations. The strength of Ukraine’s so-called “drone wall” will be severely tested in the coming months by Russia’s ongoing offensive. Building on Ukraine’s experience, NATO is reportedly exploring the idea of creating its own “drone wall” on the alliance’s eastern flank.
Beyond the front lines, Ukraine has developed an expanding fleet of long-range drones capable of striking targets deep inside Russia. This has enabled a wide range of attacks on Russian military bases, ammunition depots, air defense systems, and Putin’s economically important but vulnerable oil and gas industry. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the country’s growing long-range capabilities “a clear and effective guarantee of Ukraine’s security.”
Ukraine’s drone innovations are also transforming naval warfare. During the first two years of the war, Ukraine used naval drones to attack Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, sinking or damaging several warships and forcing the rest to retreat from Russian-occupied Crimea. This remarkable success allowed the naval blockade of Ukrainian ports to be lifted and commercial shipping lanes to reopen, providing Kyiv with a vital economic lifeline.
More recently, Ukraine has begun using maritime drones as launch pads for missiles and smaller unmanned systems. The results have been impressive. In January 2025, Ukrainian missile-armed maritime drones reportedly destroyed several Russian helicopters over the Black Sea. In another world first, Ukrainian officials announced in early May that they had shot down two Russian fighter jets using maritime drones equipped with anti-aircraft missile systems.
Ukrainian military planners are currently working on a range of unmanned ground systems in an effort to take drone warfare to the next level. With the support of the country’s government-backed defense technology cluster Brave1, work is underway to develop dozens of robotic models capable of performing a variety of combat and logistics missions. In December 2024, Ukrainian forces claimed to have made history by conducting the world’s first fully unmanned attack on Russian positions using ground robotic systems and FPV drones.
Speaking in April 2025, Ukraine’s former commander-in-chief Valeriy Zaluzhny highlighted how his country’s use of new technologies was transforming the battlefield. “The Russian-Ukrainian war has completely changed the nature of warfare,” he commented. Zaluzhny predicted that future wars would be won by countries that focused their resources on developing drones, electronic warfare, and artificial intelligence. “It is clear that victory on the battlefield now depends entirely on the ability to stay ahead of the enemy in technological development,” he noted.
Western leaders and military commanders are clearly taking note of the remarkable progress made by the Ukrainian Armed Forces since 2022. Many are now incorporating Ukraine’s unique combat experience into their own programs, while NATO members including the UK and Denmark are reportedly already receiving drone warfare training from Ukrainian military instructors. This is likely just the beginning, as more countries seek to benefit from Ukraine’s expertise.
For years, it has been common to assume that Ukraine was almost entirely dependent on Western aid and know-how for its survival. This was always an oversimplification; it is now hopelessly outdated. In reality, today’s Ukraine is a drone superpower with an innovative domestic defense industry that can provide its NATO allies with important lessons on the realities of twenty-first-century warfare.
David Kirichenko is a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society.
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