Russia is not only catching up with Ukraine’s wartime ingenuity but is also actively copying and scaling it, according to two senior Ukrainian frontline officers who spoke at the Resilience Conference on Monday
Oleksandr Vorobiov, who heads training for Ukraine’s air defence forces, said Moscow has learned to replicate frontline tactics and systems developed by Ukrainian units. “They are scaling not their ideas. They are scaling your ideas,” he told the audience.
“They see what we are good at, and they can scale it, believe me. They start very slowly, like an elephant. But when they already run, it’s pretty hard to stop it. In technical products, they are just starting to run. And believe me, when they run in full power, I’m not sure that we will be able to overtake.”
Volodymyr Gorodnychyi, representing Ukraine’s Nemesis Regiment that specialises in attack drones, electronic intelligence and warfare systems, echoed the warning, pointing to Russia’s so-called Rubicon regiment.
“They scale our experience. We are intercepting not only big drones like Shahed, but also searching frequencies with special equipment,” he said. “They start to do the same. But moreover, they overtake us. They’ve built platoons whose only mission is to find our interceptor teams and destroy them. Once they do this, they again have the full power in the air.”
He added, “Rubicon is the most technologically advanced unit in the Russian armed forces. As soon as they come to some areas, we see direct input into our drones – their countermeasures are extremely advanced. For us, it’s a big threat.”
Both officers described how Ukraine has turned battlefield necessity into a live R&D lab, with improvised frontline workshops evolving into formalised projects that bring combat veterans into labs to work directly with startups and engineers.
“Every regiment has producers they work with,” Vorobiov explained. “We just call them and say, ‘We need to fix something.’ And they say, ‘Okay, what do we need to fix?’ It’s that fast. In modern war, strategy is urgent. If you think a product will last for years, you’re wrong. Every two or three months, it needs to be adapted.”
Founders and engineers are embedded close enough to test gear under realistic conditions and receive same-day feedback from the frontline. “At the initial stage, we test in a safe location, and then we move to combat as soon as we’re sure it’s ready,” Gorodnychyi said. “It’s quick. As soon as we get a product, we can test it the same day and provide feedback.”
The officers also highlighted the growing imbalance in resources. Kyiv alone can face hundreds of drones and missiles in a single night, with air defence involving as many as 100,000 Ukrainian personnel.
“We have the people. We don’t have enough weapons,” Vorobiov said. He pointed out the unsustainable economics of trying to shoot down cheap Shahed drones with Western missiles costing millions. “Expensive, ideal products don’t work now,” Oleksandr said. “Concepts work. Adaptation works. If you spend a million on a missile, in a month or two, it won’t be adaptable to reality.”
Asked what would happen if a 643-drone-and-missile attack like the one Kyiv endured this week were aimed at London, both officers were blunt.
Vorobiov said the UK and Europe would be unable to withstand such volumes: “You don’t have so many systems. Maybe the army positions would be okay. But Russia doesn’t hit the army,” he said. “They hit civilians, they hit factories. Europe and the West are not ready for such quantities.”
Gorodnychyi was only slightly more optimistic: “Yes, the RAF could protect against it – once or twice. But after two or three days, they would run out of missiles. We’ve already seen this in Israel.”
Both officers stressed that while Russia was slow at first, it is now accelerating, aided by Chinese support and a willingness to burn through resources. “They are scaling. They are scaling your ideas,” Vorobiov repeated. “When they run in full power, I’m not sure we will be able to overtake. That’s why we need to overtake them now.”
