I flew drones on Ukraine’s fiercest battlefield. The last few months laid bare the limits of today’s drone warfare.

• Dimko Zhluktenko is a drone operator who provides vital data to defend Ukrainian positions.

• The sergeant was last deployed to Pokrovsk, a key battlefield where Ukraine said it was outnumbered.

• He says Ukraine needs more than drones to stop Russia’s brutal advance.

This essay as told is based on a conversation with Sgt. Dimko Zhluktenko, ISR drone team leader in the Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces. It deployed in 2025 near Pokrovsk, a key city that Russia said it had captured in early December.

Business Insider verified his role in the Ukrainian armed forces. The article has been edited for length and clarity.

Before full-scale war, I was a software engineer working for companies in San Francisco, New Zealand, and Germany.

Today, I lead a team of five to six Ukrainian drone operators. Our task is to use high-altitude drones to provide reconnaissance data to our troops and commanders.

With our intelligence, artillery like HIMARS and drone strike teams can target Russian equipment and soldiers, often before they even reach the front lines.

We were redeployed to the Pokrovsk region in August because the fighting there had become very intense. With drone operators being priority targets in the war, we spent our rotation days in houses and underground bunkers outside the city.

When we arrived, the weather was sunny and ideal for flying.

But the end of October was a disaster for us. Ukraine becomes foggy in the fall, with thick, low clouds possibly accumulating between 100 and 300 meters above the ground.

These are so thick that no infrared camera or thermal camera can see through them, which has made many days completely flightless for our types of drones.

At the time, the Russians took advantage of the clouds to cover their advance on foot and in vehicles. Given the weather, the number of men they sacrificed to take the city, and our limited resources, there was ultimately no viable way for us to defend Pokrovsk forever.

Ukraine depends on drone warfare. It took us through the terrible and frightening times of those Russian assaults and changed the face of the war. For example, during the entire summer of 2025, I only saw a tank twice on the battlefield.

Drones are cheap and effective, and if we had an infinite number of them, we would have been working 24/7 to fight the Russians in Pokrovsk.

But we don’t have infinite drones, so in the meantime, we need other strike tools and assets, like more artillery and troop fire. Warfare is complex and drones cannot be the only solution.

Flying blind

Under normal conditions, we fly our drones four times a day, with each flight lasting around three to four hours and sometimes late into the night. It’s tiring, but worth it because you can make a huge difference to the Ukrainian defenders. We can spot where Russian forces are moving, denying them the element of surprise, and look for assets such as air defenses and artillery for commanders to strike.

Reconnaissance drone operators like us rely heavily on visual navigation. We study Pokrovsk so closely that, even when our drone is spoofed, we can determine our flying position simply by the shape of the terrain or landmarks.

When fog season arrives, we try to make the most of any good visibility. Sometimes you can get lucky and do five flights in a five-day rotation.

However, there were days when we found ourselves sitting in a house, just waiting for the weather to clear up.

You can try flying under the clouds, but descending to low altitudes makes our bulky drones more easily spotted and destroyed. Since we have limited tools, we try to preserve them and not use them recklessly.

However, on windy days, the clouds may break slightly and give you a glimpse of the battlefield. Sometimes, when visibility is poor but not impossible to work with, we must take the risk of flying in such conditions, especially if our troops are defending against a major assault.

By the end of the summer, the situation in Pokrovsk was becoming increasingly problematic, both on the ground and in the sky. At the time, we were helping the long-range artillery concentrate on the Russian rear.

In the fall, we were working with units fighting at close range.

The simple and brutal mathematics of Russia

I started to notice Russian tactics having an impact around September.

Throughout the war zone, their strategy is to find our limit and overwhelm it with the smallest number of soldiers necessary to capture our positions.

This is simple math. Initially, they would send around ten soldiers. If that wasn’t enough, they’d send 20. Then they’d try 30.

Day after day, they increase the number of troops and equipment. Their goal is to create a situation where we will not have enough drones to counter the number of attacking infantry.

To eliminate an assault of 50 guys, all spread out, we would need at least 150 drones and artillery, which is difficult for us to organize with our limited resources.

When we were working in Pokrovsk, there were already areas of the city where the Russians had advanced, so the combat zone was porous and undefined.

Ukraine needs more than drones

If we had more troops, we could have held out much longer and carried out more aggressive maneuvers.

If we had more reconnaissance drones, our team could have flown over Pokrovsk non-stop, working despite the clouds.

With more first-person attack drones, our pilots could continue to find and attack the Russians closer to the ground.

But we don’t have enough. So we need strike tools other than FPV drones, even though they represent about 80% of our attacks against the Russians.

Ironically, some of these tools have disappeared because warfare has changed so much. Mortars might have helped, but we’ve mostly stopped using them – the battlefield is now so transparent that it’s a suicide mission to drive around near the front line in your pickup truck with a mortar.

What we absolutely need is artillery ammunition. Last year some HIMARS units I worked with were rationed to four strikes per week.

Other artillery units were limited to only three artillery shells per day. We’d find them a target, and they’d say, “We don’t have any more for today. Sorry guys.”

This season’s weather means it’s still what drone pilots call our “low season.” At the same time, the terrain is no longer too muddy, so it’s the perfect time for the Russians to attack.

This month I am redeploying to Dnipro. The fight continues.

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