The first large-scale drone war. The worldʼs leading media about the Russian invasion of Ukraine on December 3

A war that began with 18th-century imperial land grabs and World War I-style tanks and trenches has now turned into a high-tech confrontation with hundreds of soldiers operating palm-sized drones from satellite-connected tablets. This is how The Washington Post begins its article on the use of drones in this war. This war is conducted in such a way that the parties often remain at a considerable distance from each other ― and nothing covers this distance better than a drone, the publication writes. And if earlier drones were used in armed conflicts mostly in situations when a more technologically advanced enemy (most often the USA) attacked specific targets during non-intensive combat operations, now both sides actively use drones for everything from reconnaissance to attacks on industrial facilities. Drones have become such an important element of confrontation that sometimes the task of a drone becomes to shoot down another, enemy drone. Or to destroy warehouses with them ― for example, the media first published information that in September, a few days before the start of the offensive in the Kharkiv region, a Ukrainian drone, slipping between two installations of Russian electronic warfare systems, flew into the territory of the Russian Federation and discovered a base with Orlan drones in the Belgorod region. In the following photo, taken by this drone, a large hole can already be seen in the building, and an ambulance is visible next to it: a kamikaze drone flew after the reconnaissance drone and significantly damaged the Russiansʼ ability to observe the actions of Ukrainians in the Kharkiv region. "The future development of events in this war will be greatly influenced by two factors," said Samuel Bendett, a military analyst from the American research group CNA. "The first is the availability of combat drones capable of covering long distances and performing complex tasks. And the second is the presence of a large number of cheap drones for close support operations of ground troops." Ukrainians understand this, writes the newspaper, and if at the beginning of the large-scale war, many senior ranks in the Ukrainian army were skeptical about the use of drones, now they are organizing drone control training for thousands of Ukrainian soldiers.