David Kirichenko warned that the global failure to establish legal norms around autonomous weapons is enabling a dangerous shift in modern warfare.

“There remains no real framework within international law to govern autonomous weapons,” Kirichenko wrote in an article for AI Frontiers. “In the absence of regulatory intervention, Russo-Ukrainian War technologies and strategies will spark further erosion of norms. Battlefield necessity alone will continue to dictate how autonomous systems are used. The race to the bottom will continue.”

Kirichenko pointed to the use of autonomous drones and AI-powered targeting systems in Ukraine as a case study of how battlefield innovation is outpacing policy. He noted that Ukraine has deployed hundreds of first-person view (FPV) drones with AI-assisted guidance, while Russia has incorporated machine learning to improve target acquisition and loitering munitions. These systems often rely on open-source AI models and consumer-grade components, further lowering the barrier to mass deployment.

The proliferation of these technologies, Kirichenko argued, has begun to erode the traditional rules of engagement. He warned that countries may soon rely on AI to make life-and-death decisions with limited or no human oversight, citing the use of neural networks to assist with autonomous drone strikes and real-time battlefield analysis. Without international legal constraints, the incentive to adopt these tools for strategic advantage could override ethical considerations.

David Kirichenko is a Ukrainian-American writer and nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. He frequently analyzes political, technological, and military developments in Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on Ukraine. Kirichenko’s work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and The Kyiv Independent.