Now the 50-year-old commander of Ukraine’s unmanned forces is a weathered warrior and the lead architect of a strategy to target drone power at individual Russian soldiers. Four years into the war, Ukraine’s central challenge has become not so much holding territory as removing Russians faster than the Kremlin can recruit them.

With U.S.-brokered Ukraine peace talks on hold due to the war in the Middle East, Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to try to expand his military gains via new offensives against his southe