Can Kasapoğlu, Senior Fellow and Defense Analyst at Hudson Institute

Can Kasapoğlu, a senior fellow and defense analyst at Hudson Institute, has witnessed the Russia-Ukraine war firsthand and shares his insights on how Ukraine's experience is reshaping our understanding of modern warfare. He highlights the transformative impact of technology, such as the mass use of drones, artificial intelligence, satellite technologies, and digital battle-management systems, which enable Ukraine to partially offset an adversary's advantages in manpower and material resources.

Kasapoğlu emphasizes that while technology compresses military arithmetic, it cannot abolish it entirely.

The senior defense analyst discusses the lessons NATO should draw from the Russia-Ukraine war, including the need for public-private space cooperation to build a distributed battlefield nervous system. This cooperation ensures redundancy, oversight, and sovereign access, making national defense architectures more robust. Kasapoğlu also stresses the increasing importance of compute power in modern warfare, where the decisive contest revolves around which side can maintain sensing, decision-making, striking, and adapting capabilities under electronic and kinetic attack.

Ukraine's long-range strikes against Russia have had tactical and strategic effects, altering the battlefield dynamics. However, human presence remains essential, as drones account for over 80% of battlefield target kills, but ultimately, humans must manage and hold trenches. Kasapoğlu underscores the significance of understanding the social and political aspects of the war, beyond what satellite imagery and OSINT analysis can reveal.

Only by being on the ground, witnessing events like Bucha and Irpin, can one truly grasp the profound impact of the conflict on the Ukrainian people and their determination to preserve their right to determine their future.