The economic lessons from Ukraine’s spectacular drone success
National security is a weak argument for battery subsidies
On June 1st Ukraine took military raiding into the 21st century. It did so with little more than ingenuity and 117 drones, which emerged from trucks across Russia—everywhere from Siberia to the Chinese border—and destroyed a dozen or so planes in Vladimir Putin’s long-range air fleet. The raid came amid the Russian president’s relentless bombardment of Ukraine. On June 9th he launched his biggest drone strike of the war, sending 479 machines to hit Ukrainian airfields, cities and factories.
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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Assault and battery”
Finance & economics
June 14th 2025
From the June 14th 2025 edition
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