With U.S. aid to Ukraine stalled in Congress by an entrenched Republican Party and the Ukrainian counteroffensive stalled by entrenched Russian forces, Kyiv’s Western backers are grasping for ways to bolster its war effort. Since trained personnel and artillery are in short supply, their attention has turned to drones and artificial intelligence. However, overestimating the role such technologies can play in armed conflict risks solidifying the very stalemate that Ukraine needs to break.
In some ways, a focus on digital battlefield intelligence, automated targeting, and unmanned aerial vehicles by both the Russians and Ukrainians is unsurprising—neither side has many other options to work with at this point, as their respective presidents, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, both appear reticent to order new troop mobilizations. But it is also puzzling, since a techno-centric strategy seems to have played a major role in turning what the Kremlin predicted would be a three-day war into a now two-year-old war of attrition.
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