Soldiers on the front line in Ukraine have admitted they’re “terrified” as they warn that NATO is not prepared for all-out war with Russia.

The Kremlin continues to utilize drones in its invasion of Ukraine, sending relentless waves of deadly strikes across the country. Ukraine has essentially served as a laboratory for the use of drones on a high-intensity battlefield, marking a terrifying turning point in the future of warfare. 

It’s one that those with first-hand experience of the fighting in Ukraine have warned Europe is not prepared for in the event that Russia comes knocking on neighboring doors. Rebekah Maciorowski, an American volunteer paramedic, leads the medical operations, evacuation, and training for an entire battalion on Ukraine’s eastern front.

Maciorowski, who has shot down a Russian drone to protect her patients, has encountered NATO training teams as a frontline soldier, but doesn’t believe that the intergovernmental military alliance is ready for a potential war with Russia. 

“Honestly, a little bit terrified,” she told The Independent. “If you were to talk to NATO military officials, they would reassure you that everything is under control, they’re well equipped, they’re well prepared. But I don’t think anyone can be prepared for a conflict like this. I don’t think anyone can,” Maciorowski added. 

Maciorowski believes that while NATO is offering training for Ukrainians in Europe, the alliance could benefit from receiving some training from Ukrainians. She underwent training with NATO forces last year and said she was taught warfare tactics that would be relevant to Afghanistan and Iraq, not Ukraine. 

Maciorowski explains that drones weren’t really factored into the training, as she noted that the tactics learnt during previous wars don’t apply because the war in Ukraine is not a “linear assault”. 

“Everything has changed with drones,” she said. Maciorowski’s team has to use quad bikes to evacuate wounded soldiers because armoured ambulances are too much of an easy target, and the quads are able to avoid drones by darting between forests and dugouts. 

While they’ve established new tactics in the face of drone warfare, Maciorowski’s team still suffers significant losses. In the last week alone, one of her top medics was killed while on a rescue mission east of Slaviansk. Just weeks before that, another driver was blown up by a drone. 

Maciorowski said she doesn’t believe other Europeans could cope with Russia’s bombardments. Oleksandr Yabchanka, an officer in Pokrovsk, agrees. Yabchanka, who commands a drone unit in the region where Russia has sent 150,000 soldiers to attempt to break through Ukrainian lines, described the fighting as “hell.”

He also noted that the need to constantly change warfare tactics is a “colossal threat” to Europe. Yabchanka explained: “We are changing the structure of the war on the go. There is bad news for Ukraine and Europe. Russia is adapting just like us. It is a colossal threat and very underestimated in Europe.”

Ukraine is currently desperately trying to fend off relentless Russian aerial attacks that have brought rolling blackouts across the country on the brink of winter. Energy infrastructure was damaged by Russian drone strikes overnight into Sunday in the nation’s Odesa region, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.

A solar power plant was among the damaged sites. Combined missile and drone strikes on the power grid have coincided with Ukraine’s efforts to hold back a Russian battlefield push aimed at capturing the eastern stronghold of Pokrovsk.

Russia fired a total of 176 drones and one missile overnight, Ukraine’s air force said Sunday, adding that Ukrainian forces shot down or neutralized 139 drones. Ukrainian forces struck a major oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region, along with a warehouse storing drones for the elite Rubicon drone unit in the partially Russian-occupied Donetsk region, Ukraine’s general staff said Sunday. Russian officials did not immediately confirm the attacks.