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Russia’s War in Ukraine

Understanding the conflict four years on.

Drones are stalking civilians and aid workers in Sudan, hunting children and the elderly through the streets of Kherson in Ukraine, and terrorizing Indigenous people in Mexico and in the Indonesian province of Papua. They’re increasingly cheap and accessible, well-nigh impossible to ban, and, making matters even more confusing, are also used globally for peaceful purposes, like saving lives in the aftermath of the devastating Nepal floods. Today, over a decade into the consumer drone boom, more people than ever before are being killed by unmanned aerial vehicles—and the world is still doing far too little to stop the violence.

In Ukraine, targeted attacks with small, short-range first-person-view (FPV) drones, bleakly referred to by locals as “human safaris,” killed 395 civilians and injured 2,635 between February 2022 and April 2025. In January that year, per United Nations data, drones became the most common cause of death for Ukrainian civilians. In June 2026, drone attacks on Ukrainian civilians reached a new crescendo, with 89 deaths and 588 injuries recorded by U.N. monitors in that month alone.

Drones are stalking civilians and aid workers in Sudan, hunting children and the elderly through the streets of Kherson in Ukraine, and terrorizing Indigenous people in Mexico and in the Indonesian province of Papua. They’re increasingly cheap and accessible, well-nigh impossible to ban, and, making matters even more confusing, are also used globally for peaceful purposes, like saving lives in the aftermath of the devastating Nepal floods. Today, over a decade into the consumer drone boom, more people than ever before are being killed by unmanned aerial vehicles—and the world is still doing far too little to stop the violence.

In Ukraine, targeted attacks with small, short-range first-person-view (FPV) drones, bleakly referred to by locals as “human safaris,” killed 395 civilians and injured 2,635 between February 2022 and April 2025. In January that year, per United Nations data, drones became the most common cause of death for Ukrainian civilians. In June 2026, drone attacks on Ukrainian civilians reached a new crescendo, with 89 deaths and 588 injuries recorded by U.N. monitors in that month alone.

Drones have also become a key feature of the ongoing war in Sudan, where combatants on both sides use a layered combination of smaller, cheaper drones and sophisticated long-range military drones (sourced primarily from Turkey and China). Civilians are paying the price: According to a June statement from U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, his office recorded over 1,000 civilian deaths from drone strikes in Sudan between January and May 2026.

Drug cartels in Mexico are increasingly using small drones to attack civilians—often focusing aerial terror campaigns on Indigenous groups. Recent data from Colombia’s Ministry of Defense reported a stunning 8,395 weaponized drone attacks by militants in 2025 alone.

In Myanmar,........

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