14 August 2025

Ukraine built a drone wall to stop Russia—then fiber cables made it useless

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Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has produced many surprises, least of which is the defiant resistance Kyiv has mounted for years now. But the war has also sparked a wave of technological innovation, one of the most important being the mass adoption of cheap drones. While artificial intelligence has played a growing role on the battlefield, over the past year, fiber-optic drones have taken on a more central role.

“This isn’t a traditional war. It’s a war of drones,” said Vladyslav, an electronic warfare specialist serving in the 141st Separate Mechanized Brigade. He added that it’s “a war of technology.” Ukraine has leveraged this technological edge masterfully, holding Russia at bay for several years. It has built a “drone wall” – a defensive network of drones that Russia continues to hurl wave after wave of soldiers into, suffering heavy losses in relentless meatgrinder assaults.

By mid-2024, Russia began deploying fiber-optic drones on the battlefield, beginning the process of eroding Kyiv’s technological edge. These drones are connected to operators by fiber-optic cables, making them both unjammable and undetectable to conventional electronic warfare systems. Fiber-optic drones played a key role in Russia’s successes in the Kursk offensive. The same tactics are now being replicated across the front:launching rapid motorcycle-borne assaults

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