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Ukraine has created online marketplaces to let units select their own drones, a break from generations of standardized and centralized weapons procurement.
March 23, 2026, 5:25 a.m. ET
In an icy bunker in eastern Ukraine, Capt. Denys Poliachenko worried as Russian forces built up equipment about 20 miles away. His attack drones, their batteries sapped by temperatures far below freezing, could not reach that far.
But a solution was just a few clicks away. He opened his phone, scrolled through an online marketplace for lethal weapons established by the Ukraine military for its fighters, and ordered a drone model for quick delivery, one capable of reaching the Russians even in the cold.
“I can order any device sitting in a dugout,” said Captain Poliachenko, the head of unmanned systems for Ukraine’s 25th Brigade, in an interview.
Militaries have long standardized their arsenals from unit to unit and fighter to fighter, simplifying mass production, training and supply lines. Fighting in the age of drones, Ukraine has had to turn that logic around. It is expanding the variety of drones as widely as possible, and allowing troops to choose their own weapons, rather than have them selected by faraway officials.
To fight with devices that began as modified consumer technology, Ukraine is turning to something resembling a consumer marketplace, like an Amazon for lethal goods. The government has set up two websites to allow combat units to choose from among hundreds of specialized military drone models, according to their own judgment and needs.
Innovations like these show that fighting with drones requires adaptations beyond simply buying hardware. Ukraine has emphasized this as it has sent teams to help U.S. allies in the Middle East that are contending with drone attacks by Iran.
