Anne Applebaum: Ukrainians took matters into their own hands

by Anne Applebaum, the American-British journalist and author, a staff writer for The Atlantic and a Pulitzer-prize winning historian

Source: Applebaum on Substack

Taking matters into their own hands. That’s what the Ukrainians learned to do. We should too.

During the trip [to Ukraine], I spoke to a range of people who work in the drone industry, especially those making long-range drones. Although I’ve written on this topic before, I still don’t think Americans and Europeans really appreciate the scale of the Ukrainian defense industry, which now includes hundreds of new companies, or the way in which Ukrainian technology has completely transformed the war. This is no longer a merely a war of attrition, but rather the most sophisticated competition on the planet. Both sides have learned to fight using artificial intelligence, electronic warfare, intelligent targeting and more. The Russians still have more industrial capacity, but the Ukrainians, so far, have the technological edge.

On this trip, I visited a factory:

The company that I visited, Fire Point, specializes in weaponry for these long-range attacks, producing large drones that can travel up to 1,400 kilometers and stay in the air for seven hours. Fire Point recently attracted attention for its newest product, the Flamingo cruise missile, which can hit targets at 3,000 kilometers, and the company is testing ballistic missiles, too. These capabilities have put Fire Point at the cutting edge of Ukraine’s most ambitious strategy: the campaign to damage Russian refineries, pipeline stations, and other economic assets, especially oil-related assets. Trump has still never applied any real pressure on Russia, and is slowly lifting the Biden administration’s sanctions by refusing to update them. By targeting Russia’s oil and gas industry, the Ukrainians have been applying “sanctions” on their own.

At the factory, and elsewhere, Ukrainians repeatedly told me that they now seek to make weapons with no Chinese components, and no American components. Their goal is independence. If President Trump deigns to help them, perhaps by selling some weapons systems, they will be delighted. If not, they will move on.

Already, they have thought carefully about how to use their new long-range capabilities so as to do the most damage to Russia’s ability to fight the war. I spoke to a Ukrainian officer, who told me that early on in the war, his colleagues realized that the Russians are not deterred by the deaths of their soldiers:

“Russia can sustain extremely high levels of casualties and losses in human lives. They don’t care about people’s lives.” However, “it is painful for them to lose money.” They need money to fund their oligarchy, as well as to bribe their soldiers to fight: “So naturally, we need to reduce the amount of money available for them.” Oil and oil products provide the majority of Russia’s state income. This is how the oil industry became the Ukrainians’ most important target.

The program is beginning to demonstrate real success:

Russian overall oil exports are now at their lowest point since the start of the war, and the Russians are running out of gasoline and diesel at home. 

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