US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with his European partners and discussed diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine, the State Department reported, quoted by Reuters and BTA.
Rubio spoke with the foreign ministers of Britain – David Lammy, of Ukraine – Andriy Sibiga, Finland's Elina Valtonen, and the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaia Kallas, a spokesperson for the US State Department said in a statement.
Russian developers continue to test and implement new kinetic countermeasures against drones, such as drone interceptors, thermal imaging sights and lasers, the Institute for the Study of War wrote on its website today.
The US think tank cited an unnamed Russian military blogger who pays special attention to the development of autonomous weapons systems. He published a video on August 14 in which he claimed that the optoelectronic module of the Russian drone interceptor "Yolka" ("Elkha") is synchronized with artificial intelligence and can detect a drone with a wingspan of 100 centimeters from a distance of 700 to 1,000 meters, and advocates for the deployment of such systems to protect Russian surface-to-air missile systems.
Earlier this month, the Institute for the Study of War suggested that Russian drones may already be able to cross the front line and strike targets in the near rear of the Ukrainian army.
In an analysis on the topic, the Washington think tank wrote that the use of combined drone attack tactics and adaptations provides Russian armed forces with important advantages on the battlefield in Ukraine and facilitates the Russian advance on key Ukrainian cities. Three and a half years into the war, neither Ukraine nor Russia has been able to cross the front line with manned aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicles due to the density and sophistication of the enemy's air defenses and electronic warfare. However, the Russian armed forces are already partially able to do so in support of their offensives, the Institute for the Study of War has concluded.
Drones are playing a key role in the war, with Ukrainian soldiers quoted by the BBC as speaking of a "death zone" stretching several kilometers on both sides of the front line.
Russia and Ukraine are in a race to develop and improve unmanned aerial vehicles.