Drones drop water bombs as Britain trains Ukraine for a changed war against Russia

In a field at an undisclosed location, dozens of armed Ukrainian soldiers run through billowing smoke, trying to escape the attention of drones buzzing overhead.

The scene is an adrenaline-fueled theater of war, but on this occasion it is manufactured.

The field is in East Anglia, not Kursk, and the drones drop water balloons, not explosives. Rubber bullets are fired instead of real bullets and the day ends without a single casualty.

This is Britain’s way of preparing Ukrainian troops for the frontline – and has been doing so since introducing a formal training program in June 2022.

But more than a thousand days into the conflict, the nature of battlefield preparations has changed significantly – along with the mindset of those who benefit from the experience.

For example, drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are currently taking center stage ahead of deployments in Ukraine, which a senior British commander describes as a “laboratory for the evolving nature of war in conflict”.

The Ukrainian recruits, who have traveled to Britain for ten weeks, face a much tougher task than those who first embarked on the plan two years ago.

Then victory seemed possible; now a total defeat of Russia seems much more difficult to imagine.