Putin's Self-created Nightmare
- 3.10.2025, 16:22
This is what the head of the Kremlin feared the most.
Not so long ago, Ukraine was perceived as a military outsider that struggled to meet NATO standards. Surprisingly, NATO is now looking to adopt Ukrainian standards
Ukrainian military personnel traveled to Denmark this week to share their unique knowledge of drone warfare with their Danish counterparts.
The initiative was in response to a series of incidents in the airspace above Danish airports and other strategically important sites where suspicious drone activity that may be linked to Russia has been detected.
Denmark is not the only NATO country seeking to learn from Ukraine's experience. When Russian drones violated Polish airspace in early September, Warsaw responded by announcing plans to create a joint drone countermeasures training program with the Ukrainian military. Meanwhile, The Times reported earlier this year that Ukrainian instructors had been sent to the UK to train British troops in the use of drones in modern warfare.
Ukraine is increasingly recognized as a world leader in the development of drone technology. The country is rapidly developing its own drone industry, which has gotten a major boost from more than three and a half years of full-scale war with Russia. This reality has created a favorable environment for continuous innovation and allowed for daily testing of new drone models in real combat conditions.
The results speak for themselves: Ukrainian drones have proven highly effective on the front lines and allowed Kiev to turn the tide in the battle for the Black Sea. Outside of Ukraine, a growing fleet of attack drones regularly strike targets deep inside Russian Federation territory.
Many allied countries are, quite predictably, looking to integrate Ukrainian drone technology into their defense doctrines. The UK recently confirmed plans to begin mass production of drones developed in cooperation with Ukraine as part of efforts to strengthen NATO's eastern flank in the face of the Russian threat. A Ukrainian delegation reportedly headed to the U.S. in late September to begin talks on a possible major agreement for joint drone production.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky recognizes his country's growing military importance and sees the mission in Denmark as a possible model for a broader program to train European countries in Ukrainian drone warfare expertise.
"Our experience, our specialists and our technology can become a key element of the future Drone Wall initiative in Europe," he said on September 30.
Ukraine's burgeoning profile as a key player in the field of drone warfare reflects the profound transformation taking place in the European security architecture today.
Not long ago, Ukraine was perceived as a military outsider that struggled to meet NATO standards. Surprisingly, NATO is now looking to adopt Ukrainian standards.
Ukraine's emergence as a drone superpower is just one aspect of the country's astonishing transformation into a powerful military force. The Ukrainian army is also at the forefront of defense technologies such as electronic warfare, robotic systems, and cybersecurity. Not surprisingly, the recent Defense Tech Valley industrial forum held in Western Ukraine attracted no less than 5,000 participants from more than 50 countries, with Western companies pledging more than $100 million in investments.
The technological progress made by the Ukrainian Armed Forces since 2022 is indeed impressive, but the country's main resource remains human capital. Today's Ukraine has the second largest army in Europe, with nearly a million men and women in the ranks and a huge corps of combat veterans with real experience in modern warfare in the reserves. This surpasses anything found on the European continent - even without taking into account the unique combat experience Ukraine has accumulated.
With the United States seeking to reduce its involvement in European security, it is the Ukrainian army that has now become the largest barrier between an expansionist Russia and an unprepared Europe.
Ukraine's new status as one of Europe's leading military powers is Vladimir Putin's worst nightmare. And it is a nightmare he created with his own hands.
Without the momentum created by Russian imperialist aggression, such a military transformation of the country would have been simply unthinkable.
When Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in 2014, Kiev had only a few thousand combat-ready soldiers at its disposal. At first, everything went according to Moscow's plan - the annexation of Crimea met only minimal resistance. But the attempt to move further into mainland Ukraine provoked a wave of popular resistance: thousands of ordinary Ukrainians formed improvised volunteer battalions to stop the Kremlin's advance. It was this heroic surge of self-organization that saved Ukraine and laid the groundwork for the subsequent expansion and modernization of the Ukrainian army.
Despite the resounding failure, Putin refused to admit defeat. When his initial plans to destroy Ukrainian statehood collapsed, the Kremlin dictator made the fateful decision to escalate further. Thus began preparations for a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
On the eve of the invasion, Putin declared the "demilitarization" of Ukraine to be one of the two key objectives of the war. This was quite logical. in order to effectively subdue Ukraine, it was necessary to first deprive it of its ability to defend itself. However, it is now abundantly clear that Putin's plan to demilitarize Ukraine was a catastrophic failure.
It was the Russian invasion that spurred the creation of a powerful military machine in Ukraine, which promptly assumed a key place in the European security system. There is a growing realization in capitals across Europe that the Ukrainian army is indispensable to the defense of the continent - and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Supporting Ukraine's defense industry and financing its military efforts is becoming not just a show of solidarity for Kyiv's partners, but a matter of their own survival. Today, European leaders face a surprisingly simple choice: help Ukraine now - or face Russia tomorrow.
Russian troops are still advancing and Ukrainian cities continue to be hit by Russian drones and missiles, so it is too early to talk about the complete failure of Putin's invasion. However, it is already hard to imagine an outcome in which Ukraine is left defenseless at Moscow's mercy.
On the contrary, the Ukrainian army is likely to emerge from this war even stronger - and fully prepared to defend its country's place in the European community of nations. Putin had hoped to decapitate and disarm the Ukrainian state, but his self-destructive demilitarization campaign has ironically produced precisely the strong and indomitably independent Ukraine he feared most.
Peter Dickinson, Atlantic Council