Afghanistan sent eight drones into Pakistan. Ukraine warned us this was coming

WASHINGTON — The Taliban in Afghanistan launched eight drones into Pakistan on Wednesday, adding a new and dangerous dimension to an already tense border dispute.

But Ukraine warned us of the spreading threat of this modern warfare technology years ago.

The Pakistani Air Force destroyed all eight drones before they reached their targets. Four were intercepted near the Torkham border crossing and four near Kohat.

Islamabad called out Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers for the attack. Kabul denied responsibility. Neither side’s account has been independently verified.

No one was killed.

Islamabad later struck 10 sites inside Afghanistan that it linked to the drone operations.

But the Taliban’s drone launches emphasized how warfare is changing. Relatively cheap drones can be lobbed across borders, test air defenses and force countries to spend hundreds of millions of dollars protecting themselves from weapons that may cost only a few thousand.

Ukrainian soldiers have been warning about that shift for years.

When I reported from Ukraine in 2023, one soldier told me that the rest of the world still did not understand what was coming.

“These are cheap, easy to get and can deal up to $500,000 in damage,” he said at the time. “Just imagine what could happen if they end up in terrorists’ hands.”

Three years later, that warning is even harder to ignore.

Iran’s Shahed family of one-way attack drones accelerated the change. Tehran supplied the technology to Russia, which advanced and mass-produced the weapons for its war on Ukraine.

Russia now launches thousands of Shahed-type drones each month. Ukraine must use air-defense missiles, electronic-warfare systems and other weapons to stop them, often at a much higher cost than the drones themselves.

The drones are also becoming more capable.

Reuters reported this week that Russia’s newer jet-powered Shaheds can fly higher and faster, putting some Ukrainian mobile air-defense teams out of reach.

Ukraine has responded by improvising. Its forces use electronic warfare, mobile gun teams, interceptor drones and new detection networks to protect cities and military positions. The tactics have changed repeatedly as Russia has adjusted its own methods.

Those lessons are now relevant far beyond Ukraine.

The eight drones Pakistan shot down may not have been Shahed-level weapons. Pakistani reports described at least some of them as rudimentary, and officials have released little technical information about the wreckage.

But the technology does not have to be sophisticated to be dangerous.

States and terror groups can threaten targets across borders without fighter jets, cruise missiles or large ballistic-missile arsenals. Drones can be built relatively cheaply, launched in groups and modified quickly.

The world has made killing cheaper and easier. So what are we going to do about it?