By 2025, drones had become one of the main factors in the war: according to soldiers and analysts, they account for as much as 70–80% of personnel losses. Where artillery and armored vehicles once determined the outcome of assaults, both sides now rely increasingly on reconnaissance and strike UAVs.
Ukrainian servicemen say the mass use of drones helped hold back the Russian advance. A Ukrainian officer with the call sign “Kozyr” said FPV drones stopped columns of vehicles, after which Russian forces increasingly switched to attacks by small infantry groups of two or three people, using dusk and bad weather.
“Drones are constantly circling overhead. As soon as a reconnaissance UAV spots the enemy, FPV kamikaze drones and aircraft carrying explosive drops are sent there,” Kozyr said.
He said drones complicate not only assaults, but also frontline supply and the evacuation of the wounded. In urban fighting, UAVs help track enemy movement through ruins and basements, although dense development still gives infantry more cover than open terrain.
Military analyst Ivan Stupak said drones have partly offset Ukraine’s shell shortage and can hit targets more accurately than artillery. An analyst from Conflict Intelligence Team likewise said any concentration of troops or vehicles is quickly detected and struck, making large groups too vulnerable.
Experts say fiber-optic FPV drones have altered tactics especially sharply, because they are less vulnerable to electronic warfare and can operate in difficult areas. At the same time, as Pavlo Lakiichuk argues, it would be an exaggeration to call UAVs the only decisive tool: in urban warfare, communications, cover, maneuver, and available infantry still matter greatly.
The article’s sources agree on one point: armored vehicles and older forms of protection are rapidly losing effectiveness, and modern combat is increasingly becoming a struggle for small groups to survive under constant aerial surveillance.