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Former CIA director insists Kyiv could ‘stop the Russians cold’ with explosive underwater drones
www.telegraph.co.uk
Unmanned killer submarines can win war for Ukraine, says Gen Petraeus
Former CIA director insists Kyiv could ‘stop the Russians cold’ with explosive underwater drones
Liz Perkins in New York.
Iona Cleave
30 September 2025 6:00am BST
David Petraeus, the retired four-star general who led US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, said
robotic submarines and other drones were a vital component in Ukraine’s war machine.
“This is the moment where Ukraine can stop the Russians cold on the battlefields if they are able to make even more unmanned systems,” Gen Petraeus told The Telegraph in New York.
He said arming Ukraine with powerful drones was part of a three-point plan that could deliver victory.
Ukraine recently unveiled its new Toloka TLK-1000 drone that it claims can destroy targets 1,200 miles away, potentially bringing the Kerch Bridge into range. Kyiv has previously struck the pathway that connects Crimea to Russia with maritime drones.
(Edit: image on link - 39 ft long and 5 ft diameter, 1240 mile range, 60 day endurance, operating depth of 984 feet, 5000 kg payload)
Gen Petraeus, the former CIA director, said the continued development of deadly sea drones and cruise missiles – like
the Flamingo – that can strike deep within Russia was key to achieving a Ukrainian victory. But Kyiv needed continued military assistance from the West to do so, he said.
“I drove an unmanned maritime system the other day in an undisclosed location in Ukraine and it hit 100km an hour, it’s amazing. Alongside aerial drones, Ukraine now has the Flamingo ground-launch cruise missile that travels 3,000km.”
Gen Petraeus said money sent from the West to Kyiv to build up its drone army could help Ukraine win the war.
He said it was vital that the
£200bn of frozen Russian assets acquired by the European Union was invested in Ukraine in order to develop more drones and win on the battlefield.
His second and third priorities to win the war are security guarantees and a tightening of sanctions on Russia by the EU and Donald Trump.
Gen Petraeus insisted all three points must be implemented together to force Putin’s hand.
“If those three sets of actions are taken simultaneously, I think you could finally get a situation where Russia would just be forced to halt the fighting because they can’t achieve additional gains [on the battlefield],” he said from the sidelines of the 2025 Concordia Annual Summit in New York.
“Or there could be a ceasefire agreement, if that is possible.”
His warning comes after several weeks of
Russian provocations against Nato, with its drones probing Polish and Romanian air defences and its jets entering Estonian airspace, while the country pummels Ukraine with the largest barrages of the war so far.
On the battlefield, strike drones have transformed warfare and are largely responsible for Kyiv holding its far larger adversary at a near-stalemate, inflicting the majority of Russian losses.
Ukraine has also been
striking deeper into Russia, wreaking havoc on its oil and gas production facilities, sending prices skyrocketing, cutting exports and weakening Moscow’s ability to finance the war.
In the past five weeks, fuel shortages have swept from Russia’s far east to Moscow as a result of one of Ukraine’s most successful campaigns of the war – long-range drone strikes targeting oil refineries.
The attacks have reduced Russian oil refining by almost a fifth on certain days and cut exports from key ports, pushing Moscow closer to reducing oil production.
Kyiv is also leading the world in terms of naval drone technology that allowed it, with no navy of its own, to gain the upper hand in the battle for the Black Sea, sending Russia’s fleet fleeing and ending a naval blockade of Ukraine’s ports.
Its rapidly advancing unmanned surface vehicles have destroyed warships and fired missiles that downed Russian fighter jets and helicopters. Last week, naval drones helped attack
Russia’s Black Sea fleet in its new base in the Russian port of Novorossiysk.
Gen Petraeus said unlocking the £200bn of Russian money held in Europe would allow Ukraine to expand its now huge domestic drone industry, which it lacks the financial resources to scale up production further.
Kyiv has set a target of building 4.5 million drones this year, double last year’s output.
While the UK and French-led coalition of the willing has pledged boots on the ground in the event of a ceasefire, Mr Trump has wavered over what security guarantees he is willing to provide. Volodymyr Zelensky, however, has been clear that without US guarantees, he will not agree to a peace deal.
However, in a sign of relief for Kyiv, Mr Trump has shown increasing impatience with Russia, while softening his stance on Ukraine.
At the UN summit last week, Mr Trump dismissed Russia as a “paper tiger” in economic peril and said it risked losing all its occupied land to Ukraine.
Mr Trump told world leaders: “I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and
win all of Ukraine back in its original form.”
But Gen Petraeus said Putin was not serious about discussing a ceasefire and could not be trusted.
He said the West had a lot to learn from Ukraine, not least Kyiv’s ability to transform its drone warfare capabilities.
“The future of war is in Ukraine,” Gen Petraeus said.
The West needs to transform its militaries into a series of unmanned systems in every domain of warfare – whether that be underwater killer submarines, drones and cruise missiles, he added. “The Ukrainians have done this spectacularly well,” Gen Petraeus said.