Short Of Infantry But With Plenty Of Drones, Ukraine Now Fights Better On Open Ground

Cities are becoming harder to defense

Myrnohrad under Russian bombardment in 2024. Ukrainian federal police photo

Drones make cities harder to defend. Drones make open terrain easier to defend.

This new tactical truism is reshaping the battlefield as Russia’s wider war on Ukraine grinds through its 45th month.

“Cities were once the main point of Ukrainian defensive strategy,” French analyst Clément Molin explained. Think Kyiv. Bakhmut. Avdiivka. One of which held. Two of which ultimately fell after long, bloody sieges.

For nearly four years of wider war, the Ukrainians’ impulse has been to fortify the big cities—and hold them for as long as possible. That impulse may no longer be the right one.

Why? Because Russia makes up for certain technological shortfalls by deploying a lot of infantry. Ukraine makes up for a lack of manpower by deploying a lot of drones.

“The overwhelming number of Russian soldiers and the possibility to hide easily from drones inside cities” make a drone-based urban defense “more difficult,” Molin wrote.

Put simply: the Ukrainians’ main assets now work best on open terrain; the Russians’ main assets now work best in built-up areas.