How Drones Are Dramatically Changing the War

This is a new kind of war. Drones have fundamentally changed its nature—and continue to do so every day. The threats now come from above, not just ahead. If you’re wounded, medics may not reach you quickly because of the drone threat. Dugouts should be less massive—and more concealed.

And the drones themselves are diverse: small and large, for observation and for attack, for bombing and for supply. Let’s try to understand this evolving battlefield.

• Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, the chief editor of UkraineWorld, and the president of PEN Ukraine.
• Guest: Nataliya Gumenyuk, a leading Ukrainian journalist and co-founder of the Reckoning Project, which combines war crimes documentation with journalism. Nataliya recently embedded with three Ukrainian brigades to study drone warfare in depth.

She wrote a major article for "The Atlantic". https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/05/ukraine-troops-front-lines/682910/

In this episode, Volodymyr Yermolenko asked her to share what she saw and what she learned.

The Explaining Ukraine podcast is produced by UkraineWorld, an English-language media outlet about Ukraine, run by Internews Ukraine.

You can support our work on Patreon, www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld. Your support is vital, as we rely heavily on crowdfunding.

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This podcast was made with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation. It's content is the exclusive responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the International Renaissance Foundation.