Relentless human hunting is becoming a reality in Russia’s war. It is not just about the eastern cities that border Russia but also settlements in the west of Ukraine, warns Ukrainian public figure and head of the Center for Aerial Reconnaissance Support, Maria Berlinska.

“Everyone is afraid of Shaheds and missile strikes right now. But Shaheds and missiles strike specific coordinates. There’s something far more dangerous, thousands of drones above cities, operating in a constant hunting mode,” she says.

Berlinska warns that this will become our reality as early as 2026. It will affect not only Sumy, Dnipro, and Kharkiv but also Lviv and Chernivtsi.

“Thousands of killer drones that will be hunting humans 24/7. I know it sounds like a dystopian horror film but this is our reality, as I see it, already next year,” believes Berlinska. 

She believes countermeasures exist: automatic turrets, anti-aircraft drones, electromagnetic, and laser-based systems. Berlinska urges both central and local authorities to start seeking solutions now.

The expert also admits that very few are seriously preparing for this threat.

Berlinska reminds that 2026 is only six months away and calls on Ukrainians to ask: who will be held responsible when people in Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, and other cities are forced to live on the run and in basements, under constant threat from Russian drones?

Earlier, she noted that by the end of May 2025, Ukraine had entered a stage where it was increasingly falling behind Russia in the tech race. While parity remains in some areas, Russia is gaining the upper hand overall.

The Russians have built a national policy, mobilized tens of thousands of top engineers into the military-industrial architecture, brought in hundreds of engineering teams from partners such as China, North Korea, and Belarus, and poured hundreds of billions of dollars into R&D and components.

Thousands of Russian suicide drones advance. Russian Shahed drone attacks have intensified in recent weeks, with Moscow increasing both the volume and changing tactics of its aerial assaults, making Ukraine’s defense more challenging, reports Defense Express.

Russian strikes are now more concentrated, with Shahed drones flying at higher altitudes, beyond the reach of conventional small arms fire. Additionally, Russia has ramped up production of Shahed drones to about 2,700 units per month. Decoy drones have become almost indistinguishable from combat ones.

Ukrainian air-defense drones have already proven effective against Russian unmanned aerial vehicles, which conduct reconnaissance. Ukraine can produce these drones en masse—they are significantly cheaper than Shaheds, which cost around $193,000 each, though more expensive than typical FPV drones.

Analysts emphasize that air-defense drones require upgrades to better counter Shaheds: installing night-vision cameras and new control systems to reduce operator skill dependence.

Improving targeting systems is critical, potentially using radio-command guidance, semi-active lasers, acoustic sensors, or visual detection.

Challenges remain around activation time, flight duration, speed, altitude, and weather conditions, as Shaheds can attack even in rain, snow, or fog.

A key advancement is shifting to a remote, rather than contact-based, target destruction system.

As a result, upgraded Shahed interceptors will be more complex and costly than FPV drones but remain far more affordable than traditional surface-to-air missiles.

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The Ukrainians are watching US President Donald Trump’s ultimatums to Iran with frustration as the US refuses to apply the same pressure to Russia.

This disappointment peaked when the G7 declined to issue a joint statement condemning the war, reportedly over US concerns it might complicate negotiations with Russian ruler Vladimir Putin.

A planned meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Trump at the summit was also canceled after Trump abruptly left the summit a day early. Ukraine intended to use the meeting to discuss the purchase of American weapons, including crucial air defenses.

Quiet summit, loud attack

At a moment of diplomatic failure in the West, Russia has seized the opportunity to fully display its destructive power, Texty reports. 

Altogether, Russia deployed:

• 440 Shahed-type kamikaze drones
• 72 various decoy unmanned aerial vehicles
• Two hypersonic Kinzhal missiles
• 16 Kh-101 cruise missiles
• Four Kalibr cruise missiles
• Nine aviation Kh-59/69 missiles
• One anti-radar Kh-31P missile

“Russia struck Ukraine deliberately to demonstrate that G7 leaders are weak,” Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Indeed, the G7 failed to release a joint statement on Russia’s war, which handed the Kremlin a diplomatic victory.

The scale of the assault has sparked fears in Ukraine about whether its air defenses can withstand repeated attacks of this volume. Of particular concern was the 18 June debut of a new variant of the Shahed drone, equipped with a built-in camera, machine-vision AI module, and direct radio control from Russian territory.

Kremlin speaks through firestorm

Electronic warfare expert Serhii Beskrestnov, known as Flash, has explained that the radio modem installed in the drone allows real-time remote control from up to 150 kilometers inside Russia or from the front line. If airborne relays are used inside Ukrainian airspace, the range is even greater, NV reports. 

The latest models are resistant to Ukrainian electronic warfare. No longer reliant on GPS, these drones instead use onboard AI and operate via Ukrainian mobile internet networks.

Beskrestnov has warned that Ukraine could become exceptionally vulnerable to Russia’s growing drone swarm unless it rapidly develops its own drone interceptors. Moscow has already scaled up mass production of strike drones and continues to expand its capabilities.

War of attrition becomes war of precision

As the US support falters, Ukraine is doubling down on technological innovation.

Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD), explains that Russia’s expanding drone production is about quantity, but Ukraine is focused on quality.

“If our partners aren’t applying pressure, the Russians keep fighting. Our job is to hit hard, everywhere we can, and strip the Russians of their capabilities,” he says.

He continues: “This Kremlin collective is not eternal, just like the old Soviet politburo with its aging general secretaries who started dying off like cockroaches in the ’80s. The Ayatollah regime in Iran won’t last forever either, if its dismantling is approached surgically.”

Ukrainian engineers are rapidly advancing FPV interceptors and AI-based defense systems to overtake Russia’s tech leap. Kovalenko says dozens of drones in Ukraine are already guided simultaneously by autonomous algorithms.

Ukraine holds its first battle without soldiers

Kovalenko says the future lies in unmanned aerial and ground platforms, AI, and real-time battlefield intelligence. By the 2030s, the traditional role of infantry will be fundamentally transformed.

“A combat operation has already taken place in this war without any participation from classical infantry. It was carried out by one of our brigades,” he reveals.

In tomorrow’s warfare, sensor networks, AI, and data analysis will replace the need for human presence in front-line reconnaissance and strike coordination.

“The soldier of the future is an operator, an engineer, an analyst. Today’s infantry will become the brain of the battlefield machine,” he explains.

Simply put, the key to victory will be the speed and precision of mission planning, the intelligence of the algorithm, and the quality of equipment, not the number of soldiers on the battlefield.

Kovalenko also describes the coming technological arms race: “The Russian sheer quantity will be nullified. AI will evolve with evasion algorithms, drones, and weapons trying to dodge interception. But interception algorithms will evolve in turn.”

This, he added, is the real AI arms race between China and the West.

Europe’s defense goes quantum — and Kyiv’s plugged into future

To illustrate the global progress in military tech, Kovalenko cites Sweden’s successful combat trials of the unmanned Gripen E fighter jet equipped with the Centaur AI system.

“Over the Baltic Sea, this AI system engaged in a full-scale dogfight against a piloted aircraft, executing complex maneuvers, identifying targets, and determining the timing of the attack,” he says.

Centaur has undergone flight simulations equivalent to 50 years of operation and demonstrated combat readiness after just three real missions.

“The Beyond project, developed by Saab and German defense startup Helsing, is setting a new benchmark for next-generation air power,” Kovalenko adds.

Both of these tech giants are already linked with Ukraine. In May 2025, Saab held talks with Kyiv on modernizing Soviet-era aircraft and the potential transfer of advanced Swedish combat platforms.

The same year, Helsing announced that it was producing 6,000 HX-2 attack drones with artificial intelligence for delivery to Ukraine. The HX-2 is an electrically-powered, high-precision X-wing strike drone with a range of up to 100 kilometers. It is enhanced with onboard artificial intelligence that provides full immunity to electronic warfare.

While Trump walks out of the summit, even Spotify co-founders Daniel Ek and Shakil Khan have invested €600 million into Helsing, according to the Financial Times. The funding has boosted Helsing’s valuation to €12 billion, making it one of Europe’s five most valuable defense tech companies.

Daniel Ek, who chairs Helsing’s board, acknowledged that defense investments can be controversial but said he is “100% convinced” he made the right decision for Europe.

Shaheds vs. interceptors: race to save millions of lives

At a special G7 leaders’ session on 17 June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy highlighted the urgent need for new drone interceptors, not just for Ukraine, but for Europe, the Indo-Pacific, Japan, Canada, and the US.

“We’re working on developing and deploying interceptors to protect our cities from Shaheds, our cities, and therefore yours. We need additional funding to produce them,” Zelenskyy said.

In the face of diplomatic retreat and Russian technological escalation, Ukraine is leaning on its own innovation and European allies, developing revolutionary military technologies that could redefine the very nature of modern warfare.