Four Years After Russia’s Invasion, Ukraine Has Become a “Steel Porcupine”
The ongoing war has driven extremely rapid innovation in Ukraine’s defense sector—and many Western firms have taken note. As Russia’s full-scale invasion enters its fifth year, it is clear that when Vladimir Putin announced the war, he did not envision a grinding campaign of attrition merely to inch forward in Ukraine. Western leaders initially believed Kyiv would fall within days or weeks. Instead, Ukraine defied those expectations, demonstrating the power of asymmetric warfare driven by unmanned systems. Now, it aims to build a powerful domestic defense industry for the future—in effect, a “steel porcupine” that Russia can never ingest. In October 2025, Brandon Weichert wrote that building domestic air defense systems inside Ukraine would “make no difference” in Kyiv’s efforts to defend itself against Russia. His broader critique was that the “Build in Ukraine” initiative would likely “prove to be wholly insufficient to turn the tide of the war.” This critiq...
