Europe’s armies are not equipped to handle a new war of “drones, machines, and robots”, a senior Ukrainian official has said, warning that Russia has “skyrocketed to space” with advancements in military technology and ammunition production.
The stark warning came as Donald Trump paused all military aid to Ukraine following a fiery public altercation with the country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington. The US president said he wants Mr Zelensky to show greater “commitment” to a peace deal.
His dramatic intervention threw Sir Keir Starmer’s diplomatic efforts into chaos after the prime minister gathered 18 mostly European leaders at a London summit on Sunday to shore up their borders and back Ukraine.
Oleksandr Prokudin, governor of Ukraine’s frontline region of Kherson Oblast, said: “We truly appreciate and are very grateful to our American partners for the support Ukraine receives in its fight against Russia.
“If it does stop, I think it will get much harder for us. Still, we have no choice but to keep fighting for our country and independence no matter how many countries support us. I believe that the American people will continue to help Ukraine. We share the same values: freedom and democracy. We are fighting for these values.”
He warned that any deal with Russia would “only be a temporary pause” for Moscow to regroup and that Europe’s armies were “not physically prepared” for a Russian assault that would surely come after.
Speaking to The Independent from London, Mr Prokudin said just as the Second World War heralded the advent of an entirely new form of artillery attrition warfare, so Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has ushered in an era of weaponised robots, advanced fibre-optic drones, and even battlefield lasers.
“The beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, [Nato and its allies] were ready for what was coming then. But during the last three years, Russia has skyrocketed up to space with its technology, innovation, and ammunition production. They are not ready for what Russia has.
“Every army in Europe has to prepare for the new war. It might sound arrogant, but no military in Europe or the United Kingdom is prepared for what is coming, for that kind of war. It’s a war between robots, machines, drones. It is not what people are used to.”
Russia, meanwhile, has had years to develop its military technology and ammunition that is “bigger in number and better in efficiency” than anywhere in the world.
“Ukraine is a training ground for Russia,” he added grimly.
“The experience and expertise that our military has acquired during this time – especially the young soldiers – is very insightful for Europe and other countries.”
Military experts have long said that the war in Ukraine has propelled the battlefield into a new and terrifying 21st-century reality – with drone warfare at the forefront.
At the sharp edge of that sword is Kherson in the south. Swathes of the oblast were quickly swallowed into Russian control at the start of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invasion on 24 February 2022. While Ukraine was able to liberate the regional capital later in 2022, the front line has remained frozen with rival forces on either side of the Dnipro River which splits the region in half. Kherson city now only has a fifth of its pre-war population because the bombardment is so heavy, coming under 2,000 drone attacks a week, according to Mr Prokudin.
Kherson as a whole remains 70 per cent occupied by Russian forces – land which the governor admits would likely be left to Russia in any US-brokered peace deal, and which Russian soldiers can easily fortify, ready for the next push. Already, Ukrainian-held Kherson has been shelled more than 500,000 times by Russian forces in the last two years.
This has meant the region is at the forefront of efforts to fight Russia’s technology advances, Mr Prokudin continued.
He said that soldiers in Kherson have to contend with Russian drones, which now communicate via 15km of fibre-optic “fishing line”, making them completely jam-proof. They have learnt to take them down with lasers or physically hook them to other drones to collect them “like a net”.
“We are also remotely mining areas with drones. We are evacuating wounded soldiers with land drones, which they can hook themselves to. We are taking out ships with underwater drones,” he continued.
Meanwhile, they are also building a massive “radio-electrical wall” to jam any incoming drones – technology he hopes Europe could use to protect its own borders.
“If Lithuania was targeted right now, do you think Nato would come and save them? They can’t even protect their own countries – let alone us. The reason is because they are physically not able to.”
Over the weekend, Sir Keir urged his 18 fellow leaders to do the heavy lifting for their own security just two days after US backing of Ukraine appeared in jeopardy when President Trump lashed out at Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. In extraordinary scenes live on television, he accused his one-time ally of not being grateful enough for America’s support.
Sir Keir has used the summit as the opportunity to bridge a widening gap between Europe and the US under Mr Trump and also salvage what had seemed like the start of a peace process before Friday’s spat.
The prime minister said he had worked with France and Ukraine on a plan to end the war and that the group of leaders had agreed on several points.
Governor Prokudin said that in the interim, the Ukrainian army “will not stop preparing” even if there is a deal.
“We understand any [deal] is just a pause and we have to be as prepared for what is coming next,” he said.
“This is what I believe: if Europe does not wake up and start preparing, the war zone is going to be much closer to them.
“A completely different war. And none of the armies are prepared.”
