Inside an elite Ukrainian drone unit: a special report | The Economist Insider

乌克兰精英无人机部队内部:特别报道 | 经济学家内部洞察

Insider

2026-09-18

26 分钟
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What goes on inside an elite Ukrainian drone unit? How do its soldiers wage the battles of today while simultaneously building the weapons of tomorrow? Join Zanny Minton Beddoes, The Economist’s editor-in-chief, as she and her colleagues visit one of Ukraine’s most lethal drone units, the first foreign journalists to do so. She asks the people at the heart of the country’s war machine how it operates, what it takes to keep up with the relentless need to innovate and what advice—and warnings—they have for the West.
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  • Russia is striking Kyiv with an intensity.

  • And ballistic missiles hitting the Ukrainian

  • Almost 250 Ukrainian petrol stations.

  • Triggered an explosion at a warehouse near Kyiv.

  • To go to Ukraine is to glimpse into the future of war.

  • My colleagues and I spent a week there

  • under increasing Russian bombardment.

  • 2 months ago, Ukraine looked to be ahead,

  • destroying targets deep inside Russia.

  • Now Russia is escalating viciously,

  • striking civilian infrastructure

  • from petrol stations to warehouses,

  • in Kyiv, as well as cities closer to the front line.

  • They're literally hunting,

  • with the FPV drones with the small drones,

  • in the cities.

  • Hunting civilians?

  • Hunting civilians.

  • This is a war dominated by drones, data,

  • and a relentless cycle of innovation.