Ukrainian drone pilots on Gotland: NATO exercise again exposes the alliance's weaknesses

The war in Ukraine is changing not only Europe's battlefields but, increasingly, strategic thinking within NATO. The latest evidence came from a large-scale military exercise on Gotland, the Swedish island in the Baltic Sea, on which the news agency Associated Press (AP) reported in detail. Ukrainian drone pilots took part in the exercise. They passed on to Western forces what they have learned in the war against Russia – and once again sent the alliance a warning that leaves no room for doubt.

How Ukrainian drone pilots dominated the exercise

The exercise was led by the Swedish Armed Forces. It simulated an attack on one of NATO's newest members: an unspecified power moved troops to the alliance's eastern border, accompanied by acts of sabotage, power outages and attacks on critical infrastructure. The setting was Gotland, a strategically important island in the middle of the Baltic Sea.

The role of the Ukrainian soldiers stood out above all. Rather than merely observing, they actively contributed their experience from real combat. According to AP, in parts of the exercise Ukrainian drone forces even took on the role of the attacker – and “destroyed” Swedish units so effectively, and so often, that training repeatedly had to be interrupted.

A Ukrainian drone pilot with the call sign “Tarik” told the news agency:

In a real operation they would have been dead.— “Tarik”, Ukrainian drone pilot, to AP

A second pilot, call sign “Karat”, did not deny that Western forces have potential. But they would have to improve their drone systems and tactics significantly, and above all their commanders' understanding of modern drone warfare.

Earlier exercises also showed the imbalance

Last year, the exercise “Hedgehog 2025” in Estonia dramatically showed NATO troops their limits. There, 16,000 NATO soldiers from 12 countries faced Ukrainian drone teams and were completely overwhelmed. In one scenario, a ten-person Ukrainian drone team is said to have destroyed 17 NATO armoured vehicles in simulation within half a day and flown 30 further attacks on top of that. The Ukrainians rendered two complete NATO battalions combat-ineffective in a single exercise day.

Western forces fared similarly at “REPMUS/Dynamic Messenger 2025”: they stood no chance against their Ukrainian counterparts. Off the coast of Portugal, a multinational “red” naval team under Ukrainian leadership, with American, British and Spanish participants, took on other NATO forces. Across several scenarios, the team is said to have exposed the weaknesses of NATO naval forces and won all five exercise situations.

The drills included attacks on ports and convoys as well as their defence. A ship counted as “hit” as soon as a drone had been the first to target it and documented this. On one occasion the “red” team even marked a NATO frigate several times; according to the report, in real combat the ship would probably have been lost.

Chief of Defence Claesson: NATO must “learn quickly”

The conclusion that Michael Claesson, Sweden's Chief of Defence, now draws from the Gotland exercise is sober: all Western forces must “learn quickly” how drone and counter-drone operations will work in future. The fastest way to do so, he said, is to listen to Ukraine's experience.

According to AP, US General Curtis King also stressed that modern armed forces will have to rely considerably more on camouflage, survivability and networked sensors in future. At the same time, better capabilities are needed to detect drone threats at an early stage.

How pressing the problem already is can be seen on NATO's eastern flank: drone incidents have been piling up there for months, some of them caused by Ukrainian drones knocked off course by Russian jamming.

Gotland as a test for the alliance

Gotland was not chosen as the exercise location by chance. Because the island lies between Sweden and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, it is regarded as a strategic key area of the Baltic Sea.

Whoever controls Gotland essentially controls the central Baltic Sea— Michael Claesson to AP

After the end of the Cold War, Sweden had sharply reduced its military presence on Gotland. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 brought the turnaround; in 2024, Sweden joined NATO together with Finland.

According to AP, Claesson considers it a “very realistic scenario” that Russia could use limited operations against areas such as Gotland to probe how quickly NATO responds.

Upheaval in Europe's security architecture

At the same time, the exercise made visible how much drones are gaining weight in modern warfare and how much uncertainty is growing within the alliance itself. Behind this are, among other things, debates about a possible reduction of the US troop presence in Europe and pressure from Washington for European NATO members to take on more responsibility for their own security.

Several European states are already pursuing closer military cooperation in parallel, for example in the maritime domain: Nordic and Baltic countries together with the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

All in all, the Gotland exercise nonetheless leaves no doubt: the war in Ukraine has long ceased to be a purely regional conflict – it is already reshaping the doctrines, structures and priorities of NATO's armed forces.