I flew drones on the fiercest battlefield in Ukraine. The past few months have exposed the limits of today’s drone war.

• Dimko Zhluktenko is a drone operator who provides crucial data to defend Ukraine’s 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 as told essay is based on a conversation with Sgt. Dimko Zhluktenko, an ISR drone team leader in Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces. He was deployed in 2025 near Pokrovsk, a key city that Russia says it captured in early December.

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

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

Today I manage a team of five to six Ukrainian drone operators. Our job is to use high-flying drones to provide reconnaissance data to our troops and commanders.

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

We were transferred to the Pokrovsk area in August because the fighting there had become so intense. Because drone operators are priority targets in the war, we spent our day-long rotations 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 autumn, with thick and low clouds that can build up from 100 meters to 300 meters above the ground.

These are so thick that no infrared or thermal camera can see through them, making it impossible for our type of drones to fly at all for many days.

At the time, the Russians took advantage of the clouds and used them to cover their advance on foot and in vehicles. Ultimately, given the weather, the number of personnel they sacrificed to take the city, and our limited resources, there was no feasible way for us to defend Pokrovsk forever.

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

Drones are cheap and effective, and if we had an infinite number of drones, 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 attack tools and resources, such as more artillery fire and troops. War is complex and drones cannot be the only solution.

Flying blind

Under normal circumstances we fly our drones four times a day, with each flight lasting about three to four hours and sometimes well into the night. It’s tiring, but worth it because you can make a huge difference for Ukrainian defenders. We can see where Russian forces are moving, eliminating the element of surprise, and look for assets like air defense and artillery so commanders can attack.

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

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

However, there were days when we sat in a house waiting for the weather to clear.

You can try flying below the clouds, but if you go low, our bulky drones are more easily spotted and destroyed. Since we have limited resources, we try to preserve them and not use them recklessly.

However, on days with strong winds there is a chance that the clouds will break slightly and you will get a glimpse of the battlefield. Sometimes, when visibility is poor but not impossible to work with, we have to take the risk of flying in such weather, especially if our troops are defending against a major attack.

At the end of the summer, the situation in Pokrovsk became increasingly problematic, both on the ground and in the air. We used to help the long-range artillery concentrate on the Russian rear.

In the fall we worked with units that fought at close range.

The brutally simple mathematics of Russia

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

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

It’s simple math. Initially they were going to send about 10 soldiers. If that wasn’t enough, they sent twenty. Then they tried thirty.

Day by day they increase the number of troops and equipment. Their goal is to create a situation where we don’t have enough drones to counter the amount of attacking infantry.

To eliminate an attack of 50 men, all dispersed, we need at least 150 drones and artillery, which is difficult for us to organize with our limited resources.

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

Ukraine needs more than drones

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

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

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

But we don’t have enough. So we need other attack tools besides FPV drones, even though they are responsible for about 80% of our killings of Russians.

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

What we definitely 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 found them a target and they said, ‘We don’t have any left for today. Sorry, guys.’

The weather this season means it’s still what drone pilots call our ‘off season’. At the same time, the terrain is not too muddy now, so it is the perfect time for Russians to attack.

This month I’m transferring to Dnipro. The fight continues.

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