Costing as little as $400 apiece, Kyiv’s flying machines are successfully neutralizing sophisticated Russian equipment worth thousands of times more

Weapons from the West are important, but Kyiv’s shift to unmanned aerial systems is a change in tactics and a broader evolution in how its military does battle.

Kharkiv, located 30 km (18 miles) from the Russian border in northeastern Ukraine, has been a frequent target of Russian drones and missiles in the more than three-year-old war. Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.