RIGA, Latvia — Warfighting drones have become so cheap that Russia has shifted from not wanting to waste one on a lone Ukrainian soldier to sending over a dozen after just one person, a Ukrainian defense official said this week.
At the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, its forces “never attacked a single soldier, even a group of three soldiers” with drones. “They would definitely have more priority targets,” like armored vehicles or tanks, Taras Berezovets, the head of the military cooperation department of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces, a branch of the country’s armed forces, said.
But now, on the front lines, “they would use up to 15 drones to kill a single soldier,” he said at Drone Summit 2026, a gathering of military officials and drone industry leaders in NATO member Latvia.
Drones heavily define the war in Ukraine for both sides. Some drones surveil the battlefield, while others drop bombs or simply fly into targets and explode. The skies are confusingly crowded with drones, and maneuvering is exceptionally challenging for vehicles and dismounted troops alike. Drones have created miles-wide kill zones at the front-line, mid-range strike drones are devastating logistics operations, and long-range drones are damaging targets thousands of miles away. It’s a brutal drone war that is becoming increasingly robotic.
Drones have been especially effective for Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in March that 90% of Russia’s front-line losses were being caused by drones. Russia, however, has also developed a substantial arsenal, which it uses to hunt, track, and attack Ukrainian soldiers.
Berezovets said the increase in Russian drones going after individual Ukrainian soldiers stemmed from the abundance of low-cost drones, which, as attack and surveillance weapons, have developed an overwhelming presence in this war and fundamentally changed how it is being fought.
Combat drones, especially inexpensive first-person-view quadcopters, are now “very cheap,” Berezovets said. “You can destroy a tank which costs millions of euros with a single drone which costs $500, and that’s the new economy of war, completely changing the nature of war, psychologically as well.”
In this war, drones have been used to destroy and damage high-dollar weaponry and assets, such as tanks, helicopters, and air defense systems.
The value is clear, and Ukraine and Russia are producing these expendable weapons by the millions. It’s low-cost, attritable mass, and it’s a key element of modern war.
Drone performance in Ukraine has driven Western militaries to develop larger fleets of uncrewed systems and better counter-drone defenses as potential adversaries, including Russia and China, build their own drone forces.
The war in Ukraine has shown the battlefield benefits of employing a large mass of cheap, expendable weapons alongside the expensive, exquisite systems, often available only in limited stocks, that Western militaries have emphasized for decades.
Western militaries may not need to rely on drones as heavily as Ukraine has, but officials across Europe, the US, and NATO acknowledge that their use is changing how future wars will be fought — and raising questions about whether the West is ready.
Berezovets said that partner nations should “draw on our experience,” learning from and with Ukraine on drone warfare.
Alistair Carns, the UK’s minister for the armed forces, said at the drone summit that “drones and unmanned systems are changing the very way in which we will collectively defend and fight future conflicts. They’re changing the tactics, the operational structures, and we’ll have to change our strategy. They will change the close battle, they will change the deep fight, and they will change how we protect the rear.”
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