Putin's drone battle for Ukraine's skies

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The battlefield in Ukraine has moved from the ground to the skies, with Russia ramping up drone production and launching bigger, more powerful aerial attacks across the border. As Moscow leans further into drone warfare, how much longer can Ukraine hold out? Christopher Miller, chief Ukraine correspondent at the Financial Times, joins Ian Bremmer on the latest episode of GZERO World to discuss how drones have changed life on the front lines and in Ukraine’s cities.

The war looks very different from the one Vladimir Putin launched over three years ago, when tanks rolled across the border and soldiers advanced in heavy columns. Now, thousands of attack-style drones and smaller tactical and FPV drones swarm Ukraine’s skies, redefining how nations fight and how civilians live. Putin has reoriented Russia’s military and entire economy to become an industrial drone powerhouse, eroding Ukraine’s early advantage. Can Kyiv regain its edge? How long can Ukraine hold out and is a peace deal at all a possibility?

“There are now tens of thousands of drones in the air at any given time in eastern Ukraine and southern Ukraine being used by both the Russian and Ukrainian armies,” Miller says, “That has changed everything.”

GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).

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