The Dignitas Fund, based in the United States and Ukraine, since 2023 has supported over 160,000 Ukrainian drone operators. Ukraine’s drone pilots now dominate the drone war with Russia by land, sea and air. For the first time for in two years, Russia in April lost more territory than it gained, and more soldiers than it can replace, thanks in large part to Dignitas trained drone operators. My wife Suzanne and I, while on a trip to Washington recently to encourage the Mississippi delegation’s support of Ukraine, caught up with Yuliya O’Connell of the Dignitas Fund to learn more about its role in the drone war (www.dignitas.fund ).
Putin believed that Russia with three and a half times as many people as Ukraine and 38 times the land mass, would roll over Ukraine’s democracy. Putin though was not counting on facing the opposition of someone like Lyuba Shipovich, the co-founder of the Dignitas Fund and Yuliya O’Connell’s colleague. Lyuba Shipovich since 2008 had lived comfortably in the United States as an IT specialist and tech entrepreneur when Russia in 2014 first invaded Ukraine. Her response was to sell her business and devote her knowledge of technology to Ukraine’s defense. She told an interviewer: “In 2014, we already started sending simple civilian drones to Ukraine. In 2022 it became clear that a smaller country cannot withstand a larger one with human resources alone. We needed an asymmetric response, and technology became that answer. Early on civilian tools like drones, tablets and radios helped Ukraine hold the line.”
In Ukraine NGOs like Dignitas bridge technology developers with the military. Lyuba explains: “This model is unusual, as traditionally the state handles procurement and training. But in a full-scale war, speed becomes critical. Governments in democratic countries are structured and procedural, which is important, but not always fast enough. This is where civil society steps in. NGOs help close gaps: we test solutions quickly, adapt them to battlefield conditions, and scale what works. We can experiment, fail fast, and validate technologies in real conditions. Once proven effective, we advocate for their adoption on a larger scale.”
Lyuba notes: “In 2022 it became clear that technology would define survival. The war is a constant competition of speed and innovation. Both sides are adapting rapidly. Our role at Dignitas is to ensure Ukrainian forces stay ahead by continuously introducing and scaling new solutions.”
Lyuba states of the drones: “FPV drones have significantly shaped the battlefield, partially compensating for shortages in artillery. Sea drones became a game changer, enabling Ukraine to effectively neutralize much of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. Ground robots are increasingly important for logistics, evacuation and demining, allowing soldiers to operate more safely. Interceptor drones also add a new layer to air defense, enabling the interception of targets at a much lower cost than traditional systems.”
I asked Yuliya O’Connell how she became involved with Dignitas. Yuliya grew up in Donetsk and married an American working for McKinsey Consulting. She notes her husband’s work took them to Moscow for eight years through 2015. When Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, her family encountered Russian propaganda firsthand. She tells me: “The effects reached beyond politics. My daughter, who is both Ukrainian and American, experienced this directly. At school, children began repeating hostile messages they had heard from adults and media. Some told her that Ukrainians were Nazis, while others mocked her American background and repeated derogatory slang “pindosy” for Americans, telling her that the Russian army would defeat the United States in no time. What was most striking was not the hostility itself, but the speed with which it appeared.”
Yuliya further states “It also highlighted a broader difference between Ukrainian and Russian societies. Ukraine's culture has increasingly moved toward openness, pluralism, decentralized decision-making, and active civil society participation. Russia, by contrast, has become increasingly centralized, with information and decision-making concentrated at the top. Those different environments help explain not only the political divergence between the two countries, but also why innovation, initiative, and grassroots problem-solving have flourished so visibly in Ukraine during this war.”
As I was writing this Yuliya texted me to let me know that last night, June 2: “My parents endured yet another massive attack. Putin is clearly frustrated that his forces are stalled and losing ground, so he’s once again lashing out by viciously targeting civilians.” The toll in their district: four dead, 64 injured, including three children.
Preserving Ukraine though is more than a European or Ukrainian issue. If Putin ever comes into control of the vast resources of Ukraine, its agriculture, oil and gas, and above all control over its technologically knowledgeable and industrious people, he could achieve his dream to reconstitute the Russian Empire. That must not happen, especially for our sake now as we face Iran. Preserving Ukraine preserves a strategic partner for the US with the most battle-tested and technologically superior knowledge of drone warfare in the world. Dignitas can train the drone operators but only the US can provide the Patriot missiles to stop the hypersonic missiles killing Ukraine’s civilians. We urge our fellow Mississippians to support the Dignitas Fund and its training of drone operators for Ukraine’s defense (www.dgnitas.fund ).
Robert P. Wise is a Northsider.
