On Ukraine’s front lines, combat patches are currency. Soldiers trade their insignia for those of other units, mostly, but sometimes for alcohol and cigarettes. When I visited earlier this summer, I brought a stack of U.S. Navy patches from my time as an aviator, along with a rucksack that has featured a steady rotation of insignia from soldiers I’ve met in war zones around the world.

The latest addition is a camouflaged crab, the emblem of Ukraine’s 34th Coastal Defense Brigade. Even though the group was established less than a year ago, its drone operators may already rank among the deadliest fighters in the history of war. I joined three of them on June 1, one of the most intense days of Russia’s invasion, to see firsthand how they are remaking drone warfare.

Earlier that day, Ukraini

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