These past few months have seen the ‘war of drones’ play a decisive role on the Ukrainian battlefield. For the Russian side, drones were heavily utilized in the ramped up air campaign to degrade Ukrainian energy infrastructure following the bombing of Crimea’s Kerch Strait Bridge.
For Ukraine’s army, Western-supplied drones have allowed them to strike increasingly behind Russian front lines. There’s meanwhile been international condemnation over the prevalence of Iran-supplied suicide drones launched from the Russian side.
Ukraine is of course hoping to begin deploying drones with longer reach. But, one day after the Midterms election, the Biden administration has shut the door on Kiev obtaining more advanced and longer range UAVs from the US ahead of the likely political pressure from what will now be a GOP House with a narrow majority.
Is this is beginning of the end for the era of US blank check writing for Ukraine?