Ukrainian forces destroy British brigade in drone-heavy exercise
by CAITLIN LENG · Mail OnlineUkrainian forces 'destroyed' a British brigade in a simulated Nato wargame in Estonia last year, it has been revealed.
The head of Estonia's unmanned systems unit has said that Hedgehog 2025, a military exercise involving more than 16,000 troops from 12 Nato countries, reproduced a battlefield 'contested and congested' with various drones.
A British brigade and an Estonian division were in a battle group consisting of thousands of troops and were defeated by Ukrainian forces in a 'horrible' result for Nato.
One participant, who played the enemy, said the battle group was 'just walking around, not using any kind of disguise, parking tents and armoured vehicles'.
The aim of the simulation, according to Lt Col Arbo Probal, head of the unmanned systems programme for the Estonian Defence Forces, was to test soldiers' ability to adapt under fire.
He said: 'The aim was really to create friction, the stress for units and the cognitive overload as soon as possible.'
The scenario imagined a battlefield where tanks and troops could advance, replicating the earlier years of the Ukrainian war, as opposed to the largely stagnant front lines along which troops are currently fighting.
To counter the Nato forces, the Ukrainian team utilised Delta – a battlefield-management system that allowed their troops to gather intelligence in real-time and use artificial intelligence to coordinate strikes, identify targets and analyse data.
In one scenario, a team of 10 Ukrainians acting the enemy counter-attacked Nato, carrying out 30 mock 'strikes' over the course of half a day and 'destroying' 17 armoured vehicles.
This result, said Aivar Hanniotti, an Estonian systems coordinator who led another unit on the opposing side, was 'horrible' for Nato.
He said: 'We quite easily found cars and mechanised units, and we were able to take them out quite fast with strike drones.'
'Two battalions were eliminated in a single day,' Mr Hanniotti added, confirming: 'They were not able to fight any more after that.'
One commander reportedly said, 'We are f****d,' after observing the drill.
The simulation has underscored the importance of drones as the defining weapon of the Ukraine war, with analysts averaging the drones are responsible for approximately 70 per cent of casualties.
As a result, European allies have started producing drones and began to instruct their forces in unmanned warfare.
The first strike drone jointly produced by Ukraine and Germany was revealed on Friday by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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At the Munich Security Conference, Mr Zelensky said: 'This is modern Ukrainian technology. Battle-tested. Powered by AI. It will strike, it will scout, it will protect our soldiers.'
Last year, Britain also confirmed it would invest £2billion in drones to make their forces 'battle-ready'.
Britain's defence review, which was unveiled one month following Estonia's battlefield simulation, said drones were 'an essential component of land warfare' and that the Army must now invest in a mix of unmanned aerial vehicles.
This push comes as the United States continues to strive for Russia and Ukraine to end the war in Ukraine, with US President Donald Trump recently setting a June deadline for the two sides to negotiate peace.
On Friday, Mr Trump said Mr Zelensky would miss an opportunity if he doesn't 'get moving', and claimed Russia was willing to end the war through a peace deal.
He said: 'Russia wants to make a deal and Zelensky's going to have to get moving. Otherwise he's going to miss a great opportunity. He has to move.'
However, the Financial Times reported that US secretary of state Marco Rubio did not attend a meeting with European leaders on the war in Ukraine held on Friday
He was meant to go to the meeting alongside the leaders of Germany, Poland, Finland and the European Commission but pulled out, after citing scheduling conflicts.
One European official labelled this 'insane', however, Mr Rubio did meet Friedrich Merz, the German Chancellor, and the leaders of Greenland and Denmark.
Between February 17 and 18, a new round of peace negotiations involving Ukraine will be conducted by the US and Russia in Geneva.
The Kremlin has confirmed Vladimir Medinsky, a presidential aide to Vladimir Putin, will lead the Russians.
However, this could suggest Moscow attempting to delay peace talks after Medinsky was previously described by Ukrainian officials as a 'pseudo-historian' over his demands.
During negotiations last year, he compared the war in Ukraine to the Great Northern War - a 21-year-long war between Russia and Sweden during the rule of Peter the Great.
The Ukrainian delegation is to be led by Rustem Umerov and Kyrylo Budanov, Mr Zelensky's senior advisors.