Valerii Zaluzhnyi’s new op-ed, which I exclusively published on my Substack, is not just a text about Ukraine’s war. It is a warning to Europe. His core message: Ukraine’s experience is the most expensive security lesson available to the democratic world today.

“This is a war where there is virtually no difference between the front and the rear.” Zaluzhnyi argues that cheap, mass-produced, precise weapons — especially drones and AI-driven systems — have changed the logic of war. The rear is no longer safe. Infrastructure, energy, logistics and civilians are all within reach.

Russian FPV drones attacked UN vehicles in Kherson on May 14. Ukrainian officials, including President Zelenskyy and Kherson governor Oleksandr Prokudin, publicly confirmed it was a Russian strike. Russian Telegram channels then published the FPV drone footage themselves. Yet despite publicly available evidence, the UN still avoided directly naming Russia as responsible. youtu.be/U66yF4vW0m4?si=3ytj…

The visual evidence is difficult to dispute. Top: footage published by Russian Telegram channels from the attacking FPV drone. Bottom: video from the targeted UN vehicle itself. The same road. The same vehicle. The same moment. The drone operators clearly knew they were attacking a UN humanitarian convoy.

One of the biggest legal paradoxes of modern international law is that while war crimes and genocide can be prosecuted internationally, launching a war of aggression itself remains extraordinarily difficult to punish. Ukraine is now trying to change that. The Council of Europe has approved another step toward establishing a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Russia.

“The crime of aggression is the umbrella crime that enables all other atrocities,” Legal Adviser with @GRC_HumanRights Maksym Vishchyk told me. He notes that after Nuremberg and Tokyo, international law developed mechanisms for prosecuting war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide — but never fully solved the issue of aggression itself. The ICC’s jurisdiction over aggression remains extremely limited, forcing Ukraine and its partners to search for alternative international mechanisms.

One of the reasons Ukraine has managed to withstand more than four years of full-scale war is its ability to adapt technologically faster than many expected. U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll recently praised Ukraine’s Delta system for integrating drones, sensors, intelligence, and strike platforms into a real-time battlefield network. But what strikes me most after recent trips near Kramatorsk is how brutally fast this technological race evolves. Anti-drone nets now cover roads and entire sections of frontline cities. Six months ago, they became essential protection. Today, soldiers increasingly describe them as partly psychological. Fiber-optic FPVs bypass electronic warfare. Operators learned to fly under the nets through intersections and road entrances. Some drones now simply wait beside roads for targets. The battlefield adapts almost monthly now.

U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll on Ukraine’s Delta battlefield management system: x.com/front_ukrainian/status…

Russia’s war against Ukraine is existential for both states. Defeat would fundamentally change — or even end — the form in which either country exists today. For Ukraine, defeat could mean the collapse of its project of building an independent state based on Western democratic values, and potentially the loss of its place on the political map of the world. For Russia, losing the chance to establish political and economic control over Ukraine could undermine the ideological foundation of the current regime, potentially leading to internal chaos and fragmentation.

The uncompromising struggle of the Ukrainian people for their right to exist in the face of a brutal invasion has captured global attention, turning Ukraine into a major factor in international politics. Despite the rise of populism, cynicism, and political opportunism around the world, thousands of foreigners have still come to Ukraine to help. You can read more about this in my articles: “Life and Death With Ukraine’s Foreign Volunteers on the Front Line,” “The Spy War Behind the Front Line: How a U.S. Volunteer Flipped a Kremlin Honeypot,” and “From Wellington to the Front.”