The Plastic Cost of Drone Warfare in Ukraine

When people picture the environmental toll of the war in Ukraine, they usually think of scorched fields, contamination, or leaking fuel depots. But a newer form of plastic pollution is spreading across the frontline, carried in on the back of the war's most iconic weapon: the drone. Both Russian and Ukrainian forces increasingly rely on fibre-optic-guided drones, which trail a physical cable back to the operator of up to 41 kilometres instead of using radio. This makes them much harder for...