NATO Learns as Ukraine’s ‘Creativity’ Changes Battlefield
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NATO learns as Ukraine’s ‘creativity’ changes battlefield
NATO learns as Ukraine’s ‘creativity’ changes battlefield warfare. French Admiral Pierre Vandier says modern warfare changes at lightning speed. NATO this week adopted new objectives for its defence capabilities to ensure it will be able to repel Moscow. But Western intelligence agencies have warned that the Kremlin is reconstituting its forces at a pace far outstripping NATO and could be ready to attack the alliance in as little as four years. The major challenge is “integrating new technologies and new combat methods, based on what we’ve witnessed in Ukraine,” Vandier said in an interview with AFP. He said NATO needed to amass the forces to dissuade any adversary from trying an attack, as well as new equipment to complement traditional weapons and equipment. The transformation of military capabilities within the alliance, which NATO aims to expand by at least 30 percent, will come at a significant cost, estimated in hundreds of billions of euros.
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Still from a drone video during Ukraine’s ‘Spider’s Web’ operation inside Russian territory.
BRUSSELS, Belgium – Ukraine’s “creativity”, including its massive “Spider’s web” drone attack deep inside Russia, holds profound lessons for Western militaries, the top NATO commander overseeing battlefield innovation told AFP.
“What the Ukrainians did in Russia was a Trojan horse — and the trojan horse was thousands of years ago,” French Admiral Pierre Vandier, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, said in an interview.
“Today, we see this kind of tactic being reinvented by technical and industrial creativity.”
Vandier said the operation showed how crucial innovation and adaptation were for victory, as modern warfare changes at lightning speed.
“It was a real coup.”
“We are entering a dynamic era where armies must rely on both major planning but also adaptive planning,” the navy commander said.
“We will witness continuous innovation where, week by week, month by month or year by year, we will be able to invent things we hadn’t anticipated.”
– Need to act quickly –
Faced with the Russian threat, NATO this week adopted new objectives for its defence capabilities to ensure it will be able to repel Moscow.
But Western intelligence agencies have warned that the Kremlin is reconstituting its forces at a pace far outstripping NATO and could be ready to attack the alliance in as little as four years.
“Time is truly a crucial parameter. We must act quickly,” Vandier said.
The admiral, who previously commanded France’s flagship Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier, said NATO needed to amass the forces to dissuade any adversary from trying an attack.
“When you say ‘I’m defending myself’, you have the weapons to defend. When you say you deter, you have the weapons to deter,” he said.
“That’s what should prevent war — making the adversary think: “Tomorrow morning, I won’t win.”
NATO countries under pressure from US President Donald Trump are expected to agree a major increase in their defence spending target at a summit in The Hague this month.
That should see a dramatic surge in spending on military hardware.
But if cheap Ukrainian drones can inflict billions of dollars in damage on Russian bombers, is it still worth investing in vastly expensive systems?
“No-one in the military sphere will tell you that we can do without what we’ll call traditional equipment,” Vandier said.
“However, we are certain we need new equipment to complement it.”
Officials say that over 70 percent of battlefield casualties in Ukraine are caused by drones.
But while drones are indispensable in modern warfare, they are not omnipotent.
“Today, you won’t cross the Atlantic with a 10-metre-long drone. You won’t easily locate submarines with such tools,” Vandier said.
“If they accompany your large platforms, you’ll be able to achieve much better results at much lower costs.”
– Integrating new technologies –
The admiral, who works out of NATO’s US base in Norfolk, Virginia, said the major challenge was “integrating new technologies and new combat methods, based on what we’ve witnessed in Ukraine”.
NATO and Ukraine have established a centre in Poland designed to help the alliance learn lessons from Russia’s invasion of its neighbour.
Artificial Intelligence and robotics are also increasingly having an impact and are set to help reshape the battlefield.
“All modern armies will have piloted and non-piloted capabilities,” Vandier said.
“It’s much more efficient to deliver ammunition with a ground robot than with a squad of soldiers who could face a 155-millimeter (six-inch) shell.”
This transformation of military capabilities within the alliance, which NATO aims to expand by at least 30 percent over coming years, will come at a significant cost, estimated in hundreds of billions of euros.
Vandier insisted that while the financial effort was “substantial” it was “fully realistic”.
“Today, we have all the tools. We have the engineering. We have the expertise. We have the technology. So, we need to get started,” he said.
Russia claims key Ukraine advance as peace talks stall
“They could say all of the five Ukrainian regions — not one of the three-and-a-half, or one of three-or-one of the four, could be a nation, or a nation or a world, or even a nation. The state or nation could be the nation, the country, or the nation or even the world, can be seen in the state or the country. The nation or the world can be the “one” or the “many” of a nation’s state or a country’s “one-way” or “one way” of expressing the state of the state. The country or nation can be “one thing, one way, or many ways” as the state, nation, state, or nation, is not the only thing that can be said of a state or country’s state, but a state, state or region could be more than one thing. A state, region, or country can be more or less than one way to describe the state’s state. A nation can also be more like a country or a region.
MOSCOW
Russia said Sunday that it was advancing into Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time in its three-year invasion, a significant territorial escalation amid stalled peace talks.
Ukraine’s top political and military leaders did not immediately respond to the claim of the advance, which would be a symbolic and strategic blow after months of battlefield setbacks.
Moscow, which has the initiative across much of the front, has repeatedly refused calls by Ukraine, Europe and U.S. President Donald Trump for an unconditional ceasefire even as it holds talks with Kiev on a possible settlement to the war.
Russia’s defense ministry said forces from a tank unit had “reached the western border of the Donetsk People’s Republic and are continuing to develop an offensive in the Dnipropetrovsk region”.
Although there was no response from leaders in Kiev to the claims, Ukraine’s southern army command said Russia “does not give up its intentions to enter the Dnipropetrovsk region, but our fighters are bravely and professionally holding their section of the front line”.
Dnipropetrovsk is not one of the five Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea — that Moscow has publicly claimed as Russian territory.
In a set of peace demands issued to Ukraine during negotiations in Istanbul on June 2, Moscow demanded formal recognition that these regions were part of Russia, something Kiev has repeatedly ruled out.
At a first round of talks last month, Ukraine said Russia threatened to accelerate and expand its offensive if Kiev did not capitulate.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Russia’s three-year war, with millions forced to flee their homes and cities and villages across eastern Ukraine devastated by relentless air attacks and ground combat.
Strategic setback
Russia’s ex-president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of the national security council, said the latest advance was a warning to Kiev.
“Those who do not want to recognise the realities of the war at negotiations, will receive new realities on the ground,” he said on social media.
Russia’s army posted photos showing troops raising the Russian flag over the village of Zorya in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, close to the internal border.
A Ukrainian lieutenant colonel, 60-year-old Oleksandr, said that Russians entering the region would not change the dynamics of the battle.
“They are advancing slowly, very slowly, but they are advancing,” he told AFP in the town of Mezhova, around a dozen kilometres from the border between the Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.
One person was killed there in an overnight bomb attack.
Oleksandr said he remained defiant.
“They could say all of Ukraine belongs to them. Saying it is one thing. But I don’t think it will radically change the situation. Our resistance will remain unchanged.”
Dnipropetrovsk had an estimated population of three million before Russia launched its offensive. Around one million people lived in the regional capital, Dnipro.
It is an important mining and industrial hub for Ukraine, and deeper Russian advances into the region could have a serious impact on Kiev’s struggling military and economy.
Ukrainian military personnel previously told AFP that Russia could advance relatively quickly in the largely flat region, given there were fewer natural obstacles or villages that could be used as defensive positions by Kiev’s forces.
The region, and in particular the city of Dnipro, has been under persistent Russian strikes since Moscow invaded in February 2022.
Russia used Dnipro as a testing ground for its “experimental” Oreshnik missile in late 2024, claiming to have struck an aeronautics production facility.
POW swap ‘next week’
Ukraine also said Sunday that a prisoner exchange — the only agreement reached at the Istanbul talks — would start “next week” after both sides accused each other of trying to thwart and delay the swap.
Moscow said Ukraine was refusing to agree to take back the bodies of killed soldiers, while Kiev said Russia had not sent the names of more than 1,000 captured soldiers to be released.
Both sides had said days earlier the exchange could take place this weekend.
“The Russian side, as usual, is trying to play a dirty, political, information game,” Zelensky said in his evening address.
If Russia fails to comply with the agreement, it “will cast great doubt” on diplomatic efforts to end the three-year war, he added.