I flew drones on Ukraine's fiercest battlefield. The last few months laid bare the limits of today's drone warfare.

I flew drones on Ukraine's fiercest battlefield. The last few months laid bare the limits of today's drone warfare.


Given the weather, the number of personnel they sacrificed to take the city, and our limited resources, there was eventually no viable way for us to defend Pokrovsk forever. Drones are cheap and effective, and if we had an infinite number of drones, we would have been working 24/7 to fight the Russians in Pokrovsk. Mortars might have helped, but we mostly stopped using them — the battlefield is now so transparent that it is a suicide mission to ride around close to the front line in your pickup truck with a mortar.

Author: Matthew Loh


Published at: 2026-01-12 00:00:01

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