Ukraine's allies now see it as a key partner that helps their own future security.
Serhii Mykhalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
Ukraine has gone from taking almost any military support its Western partners could spare to helping those countries prepare for a new kind of warfare.At the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine was fighting for its survival with hand-me-downs from partner nations, not cutting-edge weaponry. Now, Ukraine is developing weaponry, production methods, and tactics that Western militaries are studying as they prepare for the possibility of another large-scale war.When the invasion came in 2022, Ukraine was "asking for anything," Davyd Aloian, the deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, told Business Insider. "Any support was fine for us. Even if it was 80-year-old armored vehicles, we were thankful for that because we didn't have anything."He said Ukraine's approach began to change in 2023. Ukraine had "to be more smart and strategic, and we started to work very actively in our own defense industry," he said, taking a larger role in its own weaponry supply chain. It focused initially on conventional weapons such as artillery and armored personnel carriers, but then began shifting toward new innovations in drone warfare, from drone vessels to flying attack drones.In 2024, the country dramatically accelerated its development of drones and other systems to offset its disadvantage in population and military size. It's companies began making drones and components on a new scale, and Ukraine's use of drones exploded beyond anything that partners had previously experienced.Then in 2025, Ukraine started making ground robots in larger volumes to carry supplies, evacuate casualties, and perform other dangerous battlefield tasks. The country also further expanded its drone production. Aloian called it "the year of scaling of those defense technologies."
