Why Ukrainian tanks still matter in a war dominated by cheap drones

Ukraine’s ground war has entered a phase where visibility is constant and concealment is fleeting, reshaping how force can survive on the modern battlefield. Cheap, mass-produced drones have stripped armor of the protection that once made it decisive, turning movement itself into a liability. This shift has forced militaries to choose between adaptation and irreversible loss, especially those unable to replace heavy equipment or trained crews at scale. Ukraine, facing structural manpower and industrial constraints, has little margin for attritional error. Rather than abandoning armored forces or feeding them into a transparent kill zone, Kyiv is redefining what tanks are meant to do. The result is not the disappearance of armor, but its transformation into something far more selective, integrated, and survivable in a drone-dominated war.

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