Ukraine's drone and AI push runs into a shortage of troops at the front

A Dutch AI interceptor test

A Reuters report describes a late-September test at a disused Dutch airbase in Katwijk aan Zee, where a high-velocity drone intercepted a mock enemy target detected by radar and verified with artificial intelligence. The software, Nexus, is made by Intelic, an Amsterdam company with a €30 million ($33.5 million) contract with the Dutch Defence Ministry to upgrade its air defences. Nexus combined data from radars, sensors and cameras supplied by other companies to flag the projectile as an attack, and a reconnaissance drone then verified it as an enemy drone using image recognition. A human made the final decision to launch the interceptor, although the process could be fully autonomous, according to Intelic CEO and founder Maurits Korthals Altes. Intelic now has an office in Kyiv and is helping Ukrainian forces facing intensified Russian drone and missile barrages.

Korthals Altes described the design logic this way:

Most of these systems use AI at the edge, so in the drone itself, to be able to hit a target, a flying drone for instance, and then actually get intercepted at high speeds.

The Dutch investment is part of a spending push that has allocated about €1.4 billion since 2022 to Ukraine's drone programme, according to Kiel Institute figures, placing the Netherlands among Europe's leading contributors alongside Germany and Britain. The Defence Ministry says Dutch military aid to Ukraine since 2022 is worth more than €12.5 billion and includes nearly 1 million drones.

Ground robots and drone cover at Lyman

La Libre reports that a September broadcast by Ukraine's 3rd Army Corps showed ground robots in an operation called Vivaldi, launched several months earlier in the Lyman sector of Donetsk oblast. According to Kyiv, the operation allowed Ukrainian forces to retake several localities and 176 km² of territory. At Shandryholove, the corps says robots cleared about 30 kilometres of routes in two nights, while other machines laid mines on roads used by Russian reinforcements. Some robots carry anti-tank rocket launchers and others carry explosive charges, and several were dropped up to ten kilometres behind Russian lines by bomber drones, according to "Makar", commander of the NC13 unit. Before the assault, Ukrainian units struck roads, depots, command posts and drone teams across dozens of kilometres, while electronic warfare degraded Russian surveillance over the sector. Robert G. Rose of the Modern War Institute at West Point estimates that Ukraine sought temporary "drone dominance" over a limited part of the front, and Austrian colonel Markus Reisner describes the front as a "glass battlefield" where drone density reveals troop concentrations.

Autonomous gun positions in Kyiv

Onet Wiadomości reports, citing the Ukrainian army, that the first twelve positions armed with heavy machine guns are now defending selected sites in the capital. The turrets reportedly work autonomously, with AI algorithms detecting and destroying Russian drones, so no human intervention is needed, and the platform can operate around the clock. The report notes that the system's short range makes it a last line of defence for a specific site, such as a power plant or a bridge. Ukrainian authorities said Sky Sentinel has already shot down its first drones and that more platforms of this type are planned.

A shortage of troops at the front

AP reports that Ukraine has always been outnumbered by Russia, and as the war enters its fifth year, commanders and analysts say the need for personnel is increasingly acute, with some units at only half strength. A deputy commander of the Da Vinci Wolves battalion in the Pokrovsk area, a focus of Russia's offensive, said the unit barely has enough people to hold its sector, and he asked to be identified only as "Afer" because of military rules. Draft dodging and desertion make it harder to build reserves, leaving only incremental changes along a 1,250-kilometre front line. Nick Reynolds of the Royal United Services Institute says units cannot be rotated often enough, which leads to exhaustion and more casualties. The Defence Ministry, which underwent a shake-up by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in July, is pursuing reforms to mobilisation, training and how the army is organised, and it did not respond to AP requests for comment. Former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov was replaced by Yevhenii Khmara in that shake-up, and developing a new mobilisation policy, including encouraging deserters to return, is among the most sensitive issues under consideration.