On the war-torn front lines of Ukraine, the sky is thick with the constant buzz and whir of drones—so many, in fact, that even the soldiers fighting below sometimes lose track of which flying machine belongs to friend or foe. According to Business Insider, the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has become a high-stakes electronic cat-and-mouse game, with both sides desperately trying to outmaneuver each other’s drones using sophisticated electronic warfare (EW) tactics. But with so many drones in the air and a finite number of radio frequencies, the chaos has led to a surprising and costly problem: soldiers are sometimes jamming their own drones by accident.
Dimko Zhluktenko, a drone operator with Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, has experienced this confusion firsthand. He recently told Business Insider that his unit was the victim of what’s known as “friendly electronic warfare”—essentially, their own EW teams inadvertently jammed their drones while trying to disrupt Russian ones. “It’s something that often happens with the big reconnaissance drones that both sides use because many of Ukraine’s drones use the same frequencies that enemy drones use,” Zhluktenko explained. He cited the example of Ukraine’s Shark reconnaissance drones and Russia’s Zala recon and strike drones, which often operate on overlapping frequencies. “When friendly EW tries to jam Zala, it also jams Shark,” he said.
Both sides have rapidly expanded their drone arsenals, making the airspace above the front lines busier than ever. In just a single one-mile stretch, there can be more than 60 drones in the sky at once, according to Zhluktenko. He described his own area of operations—a roughly three-mile section of the front—as typically hosting around three large Russian reconnaissance drones in flight at any given time. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. With so many smaller drones whizzing overhead, it’s no wonder that soldiers sometimes struggle to tell which ones are on their side. “It can be so difficult to tell the drones apart that infantry soldiers sometimes panic and jam everything with their electronic warfare systems,” Zhluktenko said. “They literally click all of the frequencies to be jammed because they’re scared.”
This confusion isn’t just a Ukrainian problem. Both Russian and Ukrainian troops face the same challenges: too many drones, too few frequencies, and a constant risk of friendly fire—albeit in the digital sense. Another Ukrainian drone operator, who spoke to Business Insider on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the fog of war sometimes leads soldiers to shoot at every drone they see, unsure of its allegiance. Footage from the battlefield has captured moments of frantic questioning as troops try to determine whether the buzzing overhead is a threat or an ally. With some drones dropping grenades or screaming down in kamikaze attacks, soldiers have only seconds to make life-or-death decisions.
The proliferation of drone technology has made this war unlike any before it. According to Business Insider, drone usage in Ukraine is higher than in any other conflict in history. The arsenal ranges from large, traditional reconnaissance drones to nimble strike drones and weaponized models equipped with firearms or grenades. These machines are used for everything from gathering intelligence to guiding artillery strikes and launching direct attacks. The result is a high-tech arms race, with both Russia and Ukraine pushing the envelope of what drones can do—and how they can be stopped.
Central to this technological race are Ukraine’s Shark drones, developed by the domestic company Ukrspecsystems. The latest version of the Shark boasts an impressive range of 260 miles, making it a valuable tool for identifying targets deep behind enemy lines. On the Russian side, Zala Aero produces the Zala drones, which serve similar roles in reconnaissance and strike missions. The overlap in technology—and in the radio frequencies used—has made electronic warfare an especially tricky business. Jamming, flooding frequencies with noise, and cutting connections are all part of the EW toolkit, but with so many drones vying for space on the same airwaves, even the best-laid plans can go awry.
It’s not just about jamming, either. The sheer density of drones in the sky has led to some bizarre battlefield irregularities. For instance, drone feeds have been known to get switched accidentally, allowing operators to see what enemy drones are seeing—sometimes completely by chance. With only so many frequencies to go around, these accidental crossovers can provide valuable (if unintentional) intelligence about enemy movements and tactics.
To keep up with the relentless pace of innovation, both sides are investing heavily in new technologies. Ukraine, in particular, has turned to domestic production to offset shortages in Western-supplied weaponry and to compete with Russia’s much larger military. Drones are something Ukraine can manufacture in large quantities, from high-tech factories to small workshops in people’s garages. The country produced 2.2 million drones in 2024 and has set an ambitious goal of producing four million in 2025. These drones are now a cornerstone of Ukraine’s growing defense industry, which also includes homegrown missiles, air defense systems, and ground robots.
Russia, for its part, is also ramping up drone production and investing in new capabilities. Its strategy includes using drones at the front lines and in complex strike packages against Ukrainian cities, often mixing one-way attack drones with missiles to overwhelm defenses. The competition has spurred rapid development of new EW countermeasures, such as fiber-optic drones (which are immune to radio jamming) and AI-enabled systems that can adapt to changing conditions in real time.
The lessons being learned on the Ukrainian front are already influencing military thinking beyond Eastern Europe. Western militaries, watching closely, are grappling with the same questions of how to manage battlefield confusion and prevent friendly fire in a drone-saturated environment. The experiences of Ukrainian troops—forced to coordinate drone flights to avoid accidental jamming and to quickly distinguish friend from foe—are likely to shape the next generation of tactics and technologies.
Despite the chaos, innovation continues at a breakneck pace. The electronic warfare battle between Russia and Ukraine is forcing both sides to adapt constantly—sometimes in ways that seem almost improvised. Whether it’s panic jamming, accidental intelligence gathering, or the race to develop smarter and more resilient drones, the conflict is rewriting the rules of modern warfare in real time. As the skies above Ukraine remain crowded and contested, the world is watching closely to see which side will gain the upper hand—or whether the very nature of war itself is being transformed by the relentless advance of drone technology.
