VADYM SUKHAREVSKY IS used to a seat in history’s front row. Ten years ago, in April 2014, his machineguns were the first to fire in Ukraine’s anti-terror operation, as the initial phase of the armed struggle against Russia was known. At the time, Ukraine’s forces were under a strict “no fire” order, even as Russian proxy fighters ran amok in the eastern Ukrainian town of Slovyansk. But the then lieutenant had little hesitation when it became clear that the enemy was preparing an ambush. “See it, shoot it,” he told his soldiers at the time. His fast thinking is credited with saving a dozen lives. The phrase is now embroidered on the gaming chair that swivels at his new command desk.

Freshly installed as the head of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, the first position of its kind in the world, Colonel Sukharevsky is shaping history once again. The 39-year-old commander has long stood out as a new type of military boss: a technological whizz, whose focus on electronic warfare and drones as a battalion and then brigade commander caught the attention of those at the very top. But now he must deliver across the board in the fastest-developing arena of war. He must do so against a much better resourced enemy, backed by Iran, North Korea and probably China and in a uniquely challenging environment of jamming and other electronic warfare; and with a low and uncertain budget. He believes he can do it.