27 Feb From the Battlefield to the Boardroom: Lessons from Ukraine on Countering Drone and Hybrid Threats

By Viktor Drobotenko

Across Europe, drones are still widely perceived as an emerging and distant operational risk. In Ukraine, they have already reshaped the security paradigm. Over the past years, unmanned systems have evolved at an extraordinary speed – transforming from consumer gadgets into scalable and highly lethal instruments of warfare. They are used not only for physical attacks, but also as enablers of broader intelligence and sabotage operations. The gap between the battlefield and the civilian business environment has effectively disappeared. What was once considered a distant military risk is now a present and clear threat.

For corporate security leaders, this shift demands urgent reassessment. Drone technologies are highly accessible. Components are inexpensive. Operational knowledge circulates openly online, and the criminal world is rapidly adopting it. Yet effective civilian countermeasures against combat-adapted drones remain limited, and structured corporate capability in this domain is still underdeveloped. This asymmetry creates a growing exposure gap.
At the same time, drones represent only one element of a broader transformation. Hybrid operations conducted by hostile states and proxy actors increasingly combine cyber intrusion, insider recruitment, sabotage, and terrorist tactics – resulting in significant damage. These tactics are designed to exploit security governance gaps, slow decision-making, and fragmented security structures.

These developments challenge traditional security architectures. Integrated resilience and crisis response are becoming board-level priorities across Europe. Ukraine has been forced to adapt in real time and learn through painful, hard-earned experience. Under sustained attacks, security professionals in both public and private sectors have developed practical approaches to detection, coordination, insider risk mitigation, and rapid response. These lessons are directly relevant to European security professionals operating in an increasingly hostile environment.

This session will not focus on theory. It will examine what works, what fails, and what must change. The battlefield has accelerated a darker version of the future threat landscape, and security leaders must now catch up.

This ASIS Europe 2026 presentation is scheduled to take place from 15:35 – 16:20 on 24 March. For access, register for a leadership pass.