On the eve of the peace talks in Istanbul, Ukraine launched an audacious drone attack deep within Russia: Operation Spider’s Web.
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Hundreds of Ukrainian-made drones were smuggled over the border, put into crates, and launched simultaneously to blow up billions of dollars’ worth of Russian military equipment.
Ukraine penetrated as far into Russia as the North Pole is from London, or Los Angeles from New York. No small feat, and you can bet that the whole world is watching and taking notes from how the Ukrainians are responding to Russian aggression.
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This was not a scene from a Hollywood spy movie, but a glimpse into the future of modern warfare.
Once again, the battlefields of Ukraine and the technology used there are changing the face of how wars are fought and potentially won.
Wars won’t be fought just with legacy hardware and 20th-century capabilities, but with swarms of cheap drones alongside.
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Both myself and my podcast co-host, NBC’s chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel, have spent time on the Ukrainian frontlines and have seen these drones in action.
They swarm overhead like ‘killer bees’, as he described it on this week’s episode. It’s unnerving and scary.
Volodymyr
But the way Ukraine used these drones has not been done before by an army, and attacks like these will be making Ukraine’s adversaries and allies nervous.
As tensions mount in the Indo-Pacific, both Beijing and Washington will be taking notes from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
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Russians react to Ukraine’s drone attack
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If China launches an attack on Taiwan, which US defence secretary Pete Hegseth warned could be ‘imminent’, drones will be central to any conflict between the two superpowers.
President Donald Trump‘s announcement of a $175bn ‘Golden Dome’ American defence system is classic Trump bravado mixed with an insight into the very real anxieties this administration feels with regards to China, for it is a formidable enemy.
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It is not improbable that Beijing, or its ally in Pyongyang, could carry out a similar attack on US army bases or the mainland, if tensions were to ratchet up.
So, the big question now is how will Vladimir Putin respond? A security breach of this size will no doubt invite a huge response.
But Ukraine, which has been told by the Trump administration – that it is losing this war, wrap this up and fast – has once again shown it has the willpower to continue to be agile and creative.
