In 450 words
In my note “NATO - Domination of machine over men”, former Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2021-2024 (and presidential contender) Valeriy Zaluzhnyy highlighted the rhythm of technology innovation, which has become decisive on the battlefield
New weapons, for Valeriy Zaluzhnyy, "entail new tactics of use, new forms and methods of use. New forms and methods of use entail new structures in which they are used.
As a result, there is a need for a new doctrine of use, a new training system, and new funding"
Ukraine and Russia have reached technological parity, and structures of command have been reformed, leaving NATO behind, a defense giant lumbering ‘in a crucible’, in urgent need to catch-up
Since General Zaluzhnyy’s interview last July, Russia has effectively doubled down on a strategy of massive economic engagement
Ukraine has met the multiple Russian challenges for now, but what about tomorrow?
According to a September 2025 report by CSIS, the Center for Strategic and International Studies : “Despite mounting economic, military-industrial, and demographic strains, the war remains sustainable for the Kremlin in the foreseeable future. Russia continues to believe it is winning the war of attrition and can eventually overpower and outlast Ukraine. “
Russia’s command industry has always been a potential to be reckoned with
Ever more aligned in the war effort, the military-industrial complex is deployed with ruthless efficiency
According to data sourced from 'Russia matters', a Harvard Kennedy School and Belfer Center site,
- Ukrainian officers said that 100,000 people are now part of the country’s air defenses, “more than Britain’s full-time army”, “spanning radar stations, aircrews, anti-missile batteries, electronic warfare and drone operators,” according to John Thornhill of Financial Times.
- “Even so, the Russians continue to overwhelm them,” Thornhill observes. “Ukraine would ‘in the near future’ be able to deploy 1,000 drone interceptors a day,” according to Ukraine’s Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal. But that may not suffice, according to reporting by Ben Hall, Charles Clover and Laura Pitel of Financial Times.
- Ukraine’s air defense forces need to deploy three interceptors for every one Russian/Iranian Shahed drone, which at current rates means 2,500 a day, according to Max Enders of Munich-based Tytan Technologies, whose interceptor drones are being tested with the Ukrainian military.
- Meanwhile, Russia continues to ramp up production, flying “34,000 drones into Ukraine this year, almost nine times as many as a year ago,” according to Philip Pan's October 5, 2025 New York Times article
The scope of what has become a drone war takes the breath away
In effect, the 'ball' is in the court of NATO's Western Allies, tempted to downplay the challenge and to postpone its resolution at their peril
Like an echo from past World War I experiences we would like to ignore, but no less true to this day....
“The war battle is a frightful competition of industries, and victory is the success of the competitor that managed to work faster and more ruthlessly. Here the era from which we come shows its cards. The domination of the machine over man, of the servant over the master, becomes apparent..."
So writes the conservative (and militarist) German author Ernst Jünger of his experience on the Western front (from 1914 to 1918), in Feuer und Blut, published precisely one hundred years ago, in 1925