French aeronaut explains why Russian army is unable to use drones effectively

An interview with him was published on RFI on Sunday, May 7, 2023.

"Drones are the only area where Ukraine has a quantitative, qualitative, and operational advantage at the same time. Ukrainians have a lot of drones. They rely on all the industries of all their allies: from Taiwan to Poland, to the United States, to France. In this sense, the operational capabilities are gigantic," said Titelman.

But Russians are lagging behind both organizationally and technologically.

"Since on the Russian side soldiers did not have the freedom to use drones, in the end, this use on the battlefield (for artillery, etc.) was mainly in favor of Ukraine," Xavier Tytelman emphasized.

"Another problem for Russians is that they depend on imports and cannot produce. In their drones, they put optics for the general public. That is, they are adapting civilian technologies of not the best quality for military purposes," the French expert added.

According to Tytelman, Russia realized that it was lagging behind the West in the use of drones in combat operations after the war against Georgia in August 2008. However, since then, Russians have not made any significant progress in military drone technology.

• Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that at the NATO summit in July in Vilnius, Ukraine expects to hear when it will be able to become a member of the Alliance.