Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe stated that the widespread deployment of Ukrainian drones equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) has reduced the average battlefield survival time of new Russian recruits to under half an hour. According to Bloomberg, speaking at a defense and innovation summit in Pennsylvania on July 15, Ratcliffe told attendees that US intelligence assessments align with open-source reports from the front lines.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “The life expectancy of a Russian recruit currently arriving on the battlefield in Ukraine is estimated at 20 to 30 minutes,” Ratcliffe said. The CIA director attributed this casualty rate to the integration of AI-guided drones, describing them as specialized and cost-effective strike platforms. Ratcliffe noted that while Russia maintains a significant advantage in available manpower, Ukraine has partially mitigated this disparity through the deployment of autonomous strike systems. According to US officials cited by Bloomberg, Russia is currently losing approximately 7,000 soldiers per week. Ukrainia President Volodymyr Zelensky previously stated that drones are responsible for destroying over 80 percent of designated targets. Ratcliffe’s remarks coincide with reports that Washington and its allies are evaluating new funding mechanisms for Ukrainian drone development programs, with the objective of gaining access to Kyiv’s AI targeting technologies.