A 10-man Ukrainian drone team acting as an opposing force mock-destroyed two Nato battalions in half a day during a major Nato military exercise in Estonia, underscoring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy claim that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) is the most powerful army in Europe.

According to an opinion article published by the Wall Street Journal, Exercise Hedgehog 2025 brought together forces from 12 Nato states alongside Ukrainian battlefield drone units. In one scenario, a small Ukrainian team simulating an adversary “mock-destroyed 17 armoured vehicles and carried out 30 additional strikes in half a day”.

Tymofiy Mylovanov, president of the Kyiv School of Economics and a former Ukrainian economy minister, wrote on February 13 that “Ukrainians eliminated 2 Nato battalions in a single day of the simulation. They were not able to fight anymore.” He added that the Nato side “didn’t even get our drone teams.”

The drill involved 16,000 troops and took place against the backdrop of Russia’s continuing four-year-long war in Ukraine, which has transformed perceptions of armoured warfare and air superiority. Small, relatively inexpensive drones have proved capable of destroying tanks and artillery systems worth millions of dollars.

During the Estonian exercise, “30 drones operated in less than 4 square miles”, Mylovanov wrote. Even at roughly half the drone density seen along parts of the Ukrainian front, “there was no possibility to hide,” said Aivar Hanniotti, who led the adversary unit.

Ukraine deployed Delta, its AI-enabled battlefield management system, which integrates real-time intelligence, rapid target identification and shared data to compress decision times. The system allows units to “see it, share it, shoot it — within minutes or less”, Mylovanov wrote.

By contrast, he argued, “Nato restricts data sharing. Ukraine floods units with information to accelerate strikes. Speed and integration now decide outcomes.”

One Nato commander observing the drill concluded: “We are f**ked.”

European Nato allies are well aware of their vulnerability to a massed Russian drone attack following the drone incursion into Poland on September 10 where half a dozen Russian unarmed reconnaissance drones that cost around $10,000 each to produce flew right across the country before they were brought down by combined Polish and Danish defences. Poland later said it had spent $1.4bn in the exercise. Europe has plans to build a ‘drone shield” to protect against drone attacks but this remains on the drawing board. Putin recently announced that Russia produced 7mn drones of various sophistications in 2025.