“Most of the drones used on the front line are so-called FPV drones, which transmit the image live to the operator. This means that you have much more accurate targeting. You can choose a target and focus on it precisely, which artillery never could and cannot do,” Vojáček explains. If the army needs to destroy tanks, field fortifications or specific groups of enemy units, the use of FPV drones is currently incomparably easier and, above all, more accurate than classic artillery fire.
Drones alone will not win the war
In addition, Ukrainian drones are successfully disrupting Russian logistics and supply routes, which causes a massive stretching of Russian military and economic capacities to the maximum. However, the expert warns that the war cannot be won 100% from the air using unmanned aerial vehicles.
He reminds us that, as with the attempts to break Germany by strategic bombing during the Second World War, the basic military rule still applies today. “Drones alone will not win the war. There will always have to be ground equipment and soldiers there. It is not enough to just clear the hill with the help of drones, a soldier must come there, dig in there, and only then is the hill truly occupied,” states Vojáček.
Critical Weakness: Air Defense
The paradox of the current situation is that, although Ukraine excels in the offensive use of unmanned technologies, its weakness remains the defense of its own airspace and civilian infrastructure. Ukraine’s energy infrastructure enters the summer period in an extremely weakened state. President Zelenskyi has already warned his partners that the Ukrainian army consumes an average of 60 to 70 missiles for the Patriot system per month, which far exceeds the global production capacity of their American producer, Raytheon.
To solve this acute shortage, Kiev is officially asking the United States to grant permission for the domestic production of these missiles. According to Zelensky, obtaining licenses was one of his main priorities and he opened this topic directly at the meeting with Donald Trump.
“This is a huge challenge, because production in the US does not cover our needs. We need licenses for the production of missiles,” the Ukrainian president emphasized. According to him, the American leader accepted this proposal positively. “I hope that when President Trump is positive, it means yes,” added Zelensky. Obtaining the license would mean a huge victory for Ukraine, since the chronic shortage of the most modern anti-aircraft ammunition was also significantly aggravated by the war in the Middle East, where part of the supplies originally intended for Kyiv were diverted. Washington has not yet officially commented on the license request itself.
How to throw mothballs at moths
At the same time, Kiev directly asked Germany to release dozens of expensive systems and missiles from their own stocks, with a firm promise to return them later from future Ukrainian licensed production. According to Vojáček, Poland, for example, unsuccessfully tried for this production license for three years. It was only about two weeks ago that Warsaw, and subsequently Kyiv, finally received a promise of its acquisition.
However, according to Vojáček, large and extremely expensive Patriot systems will not save the situation on the direct battle line. “Most of the losses are caused by small drones flying right along the front, which you simply cannot attack with Patriot systems. It is extremely expensive and most of all ineffective, it is like throwing mothballs at moths,” he says.
According to him, Ukraine desperately needs simpler tactical anti-drone systems, such as Toyota Hilux vehicles equipped with 12.7 mm caliber machine guns originating from the Czech initiative, modern rapid-fire cannons or cheap, only 30-centimeter guided missiles designed expressly for the destruction of smaller aerial targets.
Everyone can see that Russia is on fire
In parallel with tactical and military needs, the issue of financial burden is intensively addressed at the Évian summit. With the US administration fragmented and focused on the crisis in the Middle East, European nations are taking the brunt. According to a high-ranking diplomat from a large EU member country, he immediately pointed out that the Europeans are currently taking over almost 100 percent of the total military and humanitarian aid for Kyiv.
The European Union has already financially covered the next critical months in the form of an approved loan of a record 90 billion euros, but Ukraine requires at least another 20 billion euros to be able to massively deepen its current combat gains and push out the Russians.
“Everyone can see that Russia is burning, and we want it to burn even more, but we need funds for that,” said an unnamed senior Ukrainian defense official. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, added during the discussions that “Russia’s war economy has never been so weak” and underlined that “the table is definitively turning” in favor of Kyiv.
Europe on the scene
Western armories are primarily involved in this key development. While the Trump administration rejected Ukraine’s proposal for a huge drone deal a year ago in order to deny Zelensky a political victory, there was no such problem in Europe. Ukraine has already signed a series of industrial cooperation agreements with countries such as the UK, Germany and Canada, with British technology companies alone committing to an additional supply of 120,000 drones to the Ukrainian military this year alone.
Ukrainian officials have already come up with such bold claims that the country could produce up to 20 million unmanned vehicles in a year. According to Vojáček, however, due to the daily Russian bombardment, this is not realistic, and Ukrainian production is currently stuck at the level of hundreds of thousands per year.
However, the military expert does not rule out that with adequate financial assistance, the Ukrainian military industry could really reach this milestone within a year, while logically it would primarily be very simple quadcopters equipped with a basic camera and a deadly grenade.
Contradictions in sanctions
The different approaches of the EU and the US to economic exploitation of Russia were also a significant topic of the international summit. The main US negotiators for the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, advisers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are witnessing a significant stagnation of diplomatic attempts to reach an agreement, according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
In addition, there is a split between the partners on the issue of effective sanctions. At the end of April, the European Union approved its 20th package of anti-Russian sanctions. However, she deliberately refrained from introducing a ban on the provision of maritime services for Russian oil tankers in the hope that the US would support this step at the summit.
However, the United States is surprisingly acting in the opposite way – Washington has been issuing 30-day exemptions from sanctions for Russian oil since March, while the main goal of this step is to maintain the stability of global markets, which are currently extremely volatile due to the escalation of the war with Iran.
Russia can no longer win the war
However, it seems that despite everything, the behind-the-scenes discussions were highly productive. According to an informed French diplomatic source, the leaders present unanimously agreed on unabated support for Ukraine and on a vigorous escalation of pressure through severe sanctions aimed directly at Russia.
Zelenskyy himself stated that the G7 leaders have come to an absolute agreement that Russia can no longer win this war and must conclude a serious agreement with Kyiv as soon as possible. He added that the leaders fully understand Russia’s intention to deliberately destroy civilian and energy infrastructure in order to demoralize the population.
However, he pointed out that there is a huge disagreement inside Russia – according to his sources, around 60 percent of the ordinary Russian public already calls for a definitive end to the fighting, but a narrow circle of people close to Vladimir Putin is putting pressure on him to announce another massive mobilization after the failures. Zelenskyi said that he even personally proposed a constructive meeting to Putin directly at the ongoing G7 summit, however, according to him, the head of the Kremlin is simply not ready for peace negotiations.
Putin’s vanity
This view is also shared by the Czech analyst Vojáček, who considers Putin’s ego to be the biggest obstacle to peace. “This vanity was basically behind all conflicts, from the second Chechen war to the intervention in Georgia, the annexation of Crimea to the devastating invasion of Ukraine. I am afraid that at the moment, when he is simply not winning, he will not want to end the war out of personal pride. He cannot afford to lose in front of his own Russian audience and especially in front of the oligarchs who keep him in real power in the country,” he assessed.
However, the European leaders and Kyiv firmly agree on one thing regardless: the peace treaty must not under any circumstances contain legal recognition by which the Russian Federation would officially acquire the destroyed Ukrainian territories in the disputed Donbas region.
Further developments will now critically depend on whether Ukraine, with the massive support of Europe and eventually the US, can maintain a strong technological and tactical pace on the front against a more numerous Russia for a long time. According to Vojáček, it should not be forgotten that even if the USA withdraws from the protection of Europe in the future, Ukraine, with its enormous 900,000-strong army, remains the second largest military force in all of Europe, and thus acts as a “buffer state blocking Russian expansionism”.
