WASHINGTON, DC – As Ukraine marked its Day of the Defenders on Wednesday, a delegation of its military veterans and defense technology experts delivered a stark, two-pronged message in the US capital: while Ukrainian innovation is keeping its forces alive on the battlefield, the crucial technology fueling that fight is dangerously dependent on Chinese components.
During their meetings with Washington analysts and media representatives, the Ukrainian delegation, led by the military think tank Snake Island Institute, stressed that their success in drone warfare – now a global case study – is built on an unstable supply chain.
Their ability to sustain this advantage, they warned, is compromised by the West’s inability to compete with Beijing on speed, scale, and cost.
Dangerous Scale of the “China Problem”
Ukraine’s homegrown drone industry, which produces approximately 2.1 million FPV (First-Person View) drones annually, is a success story built on a perilous foundation.
“From our report, about 76.2% of Ukrainian manufacturers want to move away from Chinese components,” said Catarina Buchatskiy, the director of Analytics at the Snake Island Institute. “They would actively move away if they had a viable alternative,” she added.
The core problem, Buchatskiy argued, is a failure of the West to match the industrial capacity needed for a 21st-century conflict. The production of 2.1 million FPV drones, she noted, requires multiplying that number by four to account for the necessary motors alone.
“I don’t see any other viable supplier that can provide millions of FPV drone motors per year,” she stated.
The issue is compounded by Western bureaucracy, creating a “two-way street” of challenges. “American manufacturers won’t sell to them because of different export restrictions,” Buchatskiy added, underscoring how US red tape is unintentionally pushing Ukrainian producers back toward Chinese parts.
Viktoriia Honcharuk, the Head of Defense Tech for the Institute and a former combat medic, elaborated on the broader friction with Western partners.
“What we’ve seen in the US is both production processes and procurement processes are measured in years, sometimes tens of years,” Honcharuk explained.
“It’s quite hard to pinpoint some of the things that we want to change... when Russia has already made multiple countermeasures to the problem that we had a year before,” she added.
Innovation as Asymmetrical Warfare
Despite the supply chain friction, the Ukrainian delegation highlighted a constant, high-speed cycle of frontline innovation, which they are now presenting to allies as a crucial asset and a case study for future conflicts.
The slowdown in Russian gains validates Ukraine’s asymmetrical approach. According to the monitoring group DeepState, Russia’s advance into Ukraine slowed by almost half in September, capturing its smallest amount of territory since May. The monitoring group reported that Russians captured 259 square kilometers in September, 44 percent less territory than in August.
This incremental effort aligns with Commander-in-Chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi’s description of Russia’s strategy as a “thousand cuts.” This tactic involves “the simultaneous use of a large number of small assault groups consisting of four to six soldiers advancing using the terrain... with the main task of penetrating as deeply as possible into our territory,” to paralyze logistics and destroy supply lines.
Against this backdrop of persistent, grinding warfare, the Ukrainian delegation emphasized the necessity of their deep-strike capabilities.
One prime example is Ukraine’s naval drone program, which has allowed them to effectively control 30 percent of the Black Sea without owning a fleet. On the ground, Ukrainian tactics are focused on quality over sheer quantity, particularly in deep-strike missions into Russian territory.
“In the first two weeks of August alone, we destroyed over 20 percent of all Russia’s oil refinery capabilities with our deep strikes,” Honcharuk revealed.
Technology Saves Lives Amid Manpower Deficits
While acknowledging that Ukrainian forces face a significant manpower deficit compared to Russia, the delegation was adamant that technological adoption has been key to preserving the lives of their soldiers.
“Russia has more people... They don’t care much about them, whereas Ukraine cares about tactics... and saving our people and the quality of our people,” Honcharuk noted.
The delegation stressed that Russia’s perceived advantage is not a foregone conclusion, noting that their slow progress to capture Donbas over 11 years proves “it’s more complicated [for the Russians]... to put more people.”
