Rise of the dragons: Fire-breathing drones duel in Ukraine

Ukraine: It was a familiar and vexing problem: Russian soldiers were using the dense cover of tree lines to prepare to storm Ukrainian trenches.

"We used a lot of resources to try and drive them out and destroy them," said Capt. Viacheslav, 30, commander of the 68th Separate Jaeger Brigade's strike drone company known as "Dovbush's Hornets."

But they could not do so, he said in an interview last month.

So they gave a new weapon a newer twist, attaching thermite-spewing canisters to drones and creating a weapon capable of spitting out molten metal that burns at 4,400 degrees Fahrenheit. Soldiers call them "dragon drones."

Thermite -- which was developed a century ago to weld railroad tracks -- is a mixture of aluminum and iron oxide. When ignited, it produces a self-sustaining reaction that makes it almost impossible to extinguish.

It was used to devastating effect in both world wars. In Ukraine, it has been used primarily in artillery shells and hand grenades.

Now it is being attached to drones that sweep over Russian defensive positions, raining burning metal over the enemy before crashing. The flames ignite the vegetation that Russian troops use for cover and burn it out, exposing them and their equipment to direct attack.

The dragon drones are yet one more step in the revolution of drone warfare that has transformed the battlefield. Its role as a laboratory for improvisation and adaptation has become a hallmark of this war.

"It worked quite well," Viacheslav said. Speaking on the condition that only his first name be used in accordance with military protocol, he shared videos of his pilots testing the drones and using them in combat outside Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine.

In recent weeks, as more and more of these drones filled the skies across the front, Ukrainian soldiers began posting dozens of videos of the attacks on social media, hoping to spark fear along with fire.

It did not take long for the Russians to begin producing dragon drones of their own.

Andrey Medvedev, a Moscow politician, posted a video on Telegram last month showing Russian troops using drones to pour fire on Ukrainian soldiers. He included a quote from "Game of Thrones": "Dreams didn't make us kings. Dragons did."

The use of thermite is not barred under international law, but the use of such incendiary weapons in civilian areas is prohibited under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, Cold War-era guidance issued under the auspices of the United Nations.

There has been no significant criticism of dragon drones, which are known to have been used only against military targets, not against civilians.

Dragon drones represent only a tiny fraction of the rapidly expanding fleets being employed by both armies as they engage in an urgent arms race to innovate and mass produce drones that fly faster and farther, while becoming ever deadlier.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said this month that his country was on pace to produce 1.5 million drones this year, and he wants to ramp up production to 4 million annually.

Ukraine this year created the Unmanned Systems Force, the world's first military branch dedicated to drone warfare.

Russia, for its part, has effectively turned its economy to supporting its military industrial complex, recently announcing a proposed budget for next year with a 25 per cent increase in military spending, to more than $145 billion.

As a result, it is able to churn out drones at an extraordinary pace.

"They've taken it to a more official level, and their supply seems much better," Viacheslav said.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia met with the Russian Military-Industrial Commission in September to highlight efforts to expand drone production. While Russian companies delivered only about 140,000 drones last year, Putin said they increased production tenfold to 1.4 million drones in 2024.

Marina Miron, a researcher in the war studies department at King's College London, said the Russians had been "quite slow at the beginning" but that they were now spending a vast sum on research and development and could scale new innovations at greater speed than the Ukrainians.

"They moved quickly," she said.

Russia has also received a significant boost from Iran, which U.S. officials say has been sending drones to Moscow for use in Ukraine.

There are dozens of types of drones in production.

Surveillance drones flying high in the sky help artillery crews and missileers identify targets. Maritime drones have been employed by Ukraine to devastating effect, helping drive the Russian navy from a large part of the Black Sea. And both sides regularly deploy long-range attack drones guided by satellite navigation to hit targets hundreds of miles away.

Closer to the ground, the skies are filled with relatively cheap expendable attack drones, known as FPVs, for first-person view. They are guided by a pilot wearing a headset that shows livestreaming video from the drone, and can now hit targets more than 10 miles from the operator.

Some fly directly into a target and explode. Others are reusable and can hover over a target, dropping bomblets or grenades on enemy forces.

Viacheslav scrolled through a video catalog of recent attacks he keeps on his cellphone, where images of death and destruction were jarringly interspersed with videos of friends and family.

"This is called 'White Heat,'" he said. "With over 10 kilograms of explosives, it burns through everything. This one is called 'Dementor,' like in 'Harry Potter.' It's black, and it's a 120 mm mortar. We just repurpose it. This is 'Kardonitik' -- the guys really like it."

The list went on and on.

Since his unit arrived in the Pokrovsk area in April, Viacheslav said, it has killed more than 3,000 Russian soldiers. "This is just my unit," he said. It is not possible to verify his claims independently.

He also shared videos showing the effectiveness of Russian drones.

"One of our soldiers had 40 per cent of his skin burned off," he said, replaying a video of the wounded man being evacuated from the front. "I was the one driving him in the car."

While both sides are on course to produce millions of drones, he said, skilled pilots become even more valuable and far harder to replace.

"Pilots are like specialists -- worth their weight in gold -- and it's crucial to protect them," Viacheslav said. "Once located, the enemy spares no resources in destroying the position."