Ukrainian soldier says his drone unit hasn't fired their rifles in 6 months and that the future of warfare is all about 'shooting drones at each other'

Thibault Spirlet
Updated Thu, September 14, 2023 


How a 23-year-old influencer is helping Ukraine attack Russia

Ukraine enlisted the help of the 23-year-old influencer Igor Lachenkov to produce the new long-range "Beaver" drone. The exploding drone is believed to be the weapon involved in recent airstrikes in Russia.


Ukrainian soldiers flying a drone during a military training session in Donetsk, Ukraine, on August 17, 2023.Anadolu Agency

• A Ukrainian soldier said rifles are a thing of the past, and drones are the future of warfare.

• Valentyn Ilchuk told Metro that he and his three-man unit use drones to target Russian forces.

• "If you ask me what war will be like in five to 10 years, there will be far fewer rifles," he said.

A Ukrainian soldier said his unit has not shot their rifles in six months, with the focus heavily on drone warfare.

Valentyn Ilchuk, the leader of what he called a three-man "hunter-killer crew," has been sharing his military exploits on Facebook from the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, where the Ukrainian counteroffensive is making slow progress.

Ilchuk's unit uses self-exploding drones to target Russian positions far behind the front lines, and he told Metro newspaper that these weapons are the future of modern warfare.

"If you ask me what war will be like in five to 10 years, there will be far fewer rifles," he said.

"Sometimes we joke about having to drag our rifles around with us because, in half a year, we haven't shot them once," he told the outlet, adding: "This is the future of warfare: shooting drones at each other rather than bullets or shells."

Ilchuk and his unit have proved creative with their drones, attaching grenades and carrying a larger payload, per the outlet.

They've also used DJI Mavic quadcopters and agricultural drones as bombers, the outlet reported.

However, Ilchuk said the weapons provided by Ukraine's defense ministry can only take them so far, according to a Facebook post. As a result, he has launched a fundraising drive to buy more drones, batteries, munition drop systems, reconnaissance drones, and other "much-needed" equipment.

Russian and Ukrainian forces have leaned heavily into using drones in the current conflict, both for reconnaissance as well as for carrying explosive payloads.

Last Friday, the Ukrainian energy company Okko published footage showing Ukraine's military using a single drone with a high optical zoom to locate the positions of Russian surface-to-air defenses, which were then destroyed with HIMARS.

Recent drone assaults in Russia have also called into question the country's ostensibly sophisticated air defense systems, which are struggling to deal with smaller, difficult-to-detect drones.

Samuel Bendett, an analyst and expert in unmanned and robotic military systems at the Center for Naval Analyses, previously told Insider that Russia's defense systems are not geared toward identifying small drones.

In late August, Ukraine's Security Service told the Kyiv Post that it used "cardboard" drones from Australia to damage five fighter planes at a Russian airfield.

More recently, Ukrainian IT company Cosmolot said it had delivered the first of 15 "Punisher" attack drones to the Ukrainian army, which it claimed were resistant to electronic warfare.