War in Ukraine

“I will say everything as it happened without leaving anything out, unless it's something I have forgotten,” a young African man says while sitting in a room in an undisclosed Ukrainian city. He is a soldier in the Russian army, captured by Ukrainian forces. The POW describes everything that happened to him, from the moment he decided to study in Russia.

In Ukraine’s drone-dominated war, camouflage is moving beyond patterns and colors. With thermal imaging, aerial surveillance, and AI-driven detection reshaping the battlefield, Ukrainian forces are turning to new uniforms, anti-thermal suits, and heat-masking cloaks designed to evade sensors as much as human sight.

Ukraine is revolutionizing defense with low-cost signal detectors, allowing Ukrainian soldiers to intercept the live video feed of incoming Russian FPV drones before they reach their target, protecting troops, journalists, and civilians.

“The cell is cold, rats run around, the light is on constantly.” This is how a civilian journalist abducted in Russian-occupied Melitopol describes her detention. Like many other Ukrainian media workers, Yana has been reclassified by Russia as a “terrorist” and sentenced in a closed, staged trial, effectively erased from public view and from prisoner-exchange talks.

Ukraine is implementing its drone warfare strategy: thanks to effective strikes by drone units, Russian losses are now almost comparable to the rate at which Russia recruits new troops.

Ukrainian defense tech saw an unprecedented surge in 2025, with more than $100 million raised in investments. The leader is the startup Swarmer, known for developing “drone swarm” technology, which closed the industry's largest publicly disclosed funding round in 2025—$15 million. The company is now seeking a listing on Nasdaq.