According to reporting in The Atlantic, Ukrainian officials developed an unprecedented operational concept to try to bring the war toward a conclusion: swarms of AI-enabled, autonomous drones would have been used to disable civilian air traffic at Moscow-area airports. The proposal was ultimately judged too risky and abandoned.
The concept
Under the plan, as many as one thousand small, inexpensive, AI-guided drones would have been launched nightly against Moscow’s airports and those in the surrounding region. The autonomous drones were to identify targets without human intervention. Deploying such a system at this scale would have been without precedent in live combat. The operation carried the codename “M&Ms,” a reference to the large number of small, uniform drones required.
Strategic rationale and anticipated effects
The strategy rested on the idea that disrupting airport operations in Moscow would cause significant inconvenience primarily to Russia’s elite. Due to Western sanctions, only a few carriers — including Turkish Airlines and Emirates — currently operate flights to Moscow, services used largely by wealthier passengers traveling to Istanbul and Dubai. If those flights were halted, the thinking went, pressure from oligarchs and pro‑Putin elite circles might mount on the Russian leadership to enter peace negotiations.
Key actors and preparations
The operation’s intellectual author was Mykhailo Fedorov, the defense minister, who reportedly spent much of the year developing the plan and kept it secret even from close aides. Fedorov is said to have assembled the programming team that developed the AI control system and to have secured resources from European allies to mass-produce the autonomous drones. Preparations continued through spring and early summer, according to the reporting.
Concerns and cancellation
When the plan was presented to President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier in the year, he expressed serious reservations. He feared the drones might strike a civilian airliner, which would be perceived internationally as an act of piracy. The plan’s designers proposed several mitigation measures, including advance warnings to airlines so they could withdraw aircraft from targeted airports.
Preparations were stopped in July after Zelensky unexpectedly dismissed Mykhailo Fedorov. The Atlantic’s sources report that the combination of operational risks and presidential concerns led to the plan’s abandonment.
Official responses and denials
An anonymous official in the presidential administration told the outlet the plan did not exist and called the story “utterly implausible.” The official added, however, that Ukraine has long sought to disrupt Russian airport operations and that drone strikes have occasionally achieved short-term effects. He also stated that the country lacks the long-range precision weapons needed to carry out such actions without posing unjustified risks to civilians.
Why this matters
The account illustrates how concepts for employing artificial intelligence and drone technology in the conflict are evolving rapidly. It also underscores the political, legal, and ethical constraints involved: targeting infrastructure used by civilians, the risk of mistakes, and international perception were decisive factors in rejecting the proposal.
Note on reporting
An AI assistant was involved in preparing material for this article; the final text was edited and verified by our journalist.
