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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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The organizers of a major Russian drone festival have pledged to gear up for war against NATO countries, despite Kremlin insistence Russia has no plans to attack the alliance.
The organizers of Dronnitsa, an annual conference of drone makers and operators in Russia, said the two goals of this year's meeting were to "prepare for a great war with NATO" and to "turn the tide of the current 'drone war' in our favor."
Russia has kicked its defense industry into a high gear, churning out staggering numbers of drones to feed its war effort in Ukraine, now nearly four-and-a-half years in.
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The conflict has been a crucible for drone development, with both countries becoming world leaders in using unmanned technology to fight wars, pulling ahead of NATO members now rushing to catch up on tactics honed in eastern Europe.
Russian and Ukrainian drones have regularly strayed into NATO airspace, sparking panic over how slowly anti-drone defenses are being rolled out and exposing how ill-equipped Western militaries still are to deal with drone attacks.
Dronnitsa's annual meeting will take place over two days in late August in the western Russian city of Veliky Novgorod. More than 2,000 people attended Dronnitsa in 2025, state media reported.
The meeting is typically well-attended by Russian government officials, and all attendees are vetted by Russian security services, like the FSB, before they are able to go, Samuel Bendett, an expert in Russian drones with the CNA think tank, said.
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Previous Dronnitsa conferences have looked at how best to train Russian drone operators, piecing together drone forces, and strategies for fixing "mistakes" in how Russia's military wields drones.
"In the four previous events, there have been lots of candid discissions about how Russia is actually fairing in the war," Bendett told Newsweek.
This comes as Ukraine has repeatedly warned other European countries could come under Russian attack once the hundreds of thousands of Russian troops currently bogged down in the battlefields of the eastern European country are freed up by a peace deal.
Peace talks, pushed by the U.S., have been held up by Washington's war with Iran, but are expected to come back to the top of the White House's agenda once a final agreement is reached with Tehran.
Some NATO officials warn Moscow could target the alliance's eastern flank in the next few years, even as others downplay Russia's appetite for testing how NATO would respond to a Kremlin attack.
A Russian attack would likely target Poland, Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania. Military exercises in the U.K. last month war-gamed how NATO would react if Moscow invaded the Baltic states in 2030.
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NATO chief Mark Rutte said in December the alliance needed to be equipped for the "scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured."
NATO is "Russia's next target," Rutte said. His comments drew criticism from the Kremlin, which called the remarks "irresponsible."
Russia says it doesn't plan to attack any other countries in Europe, dismissing the possibility as "nonsense."
In the weeks leading up to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian officials insisted there were no plans to invade Russia's neighbor.
Latvian intelligence assesses Russia is gearing up for "military provocations" against the Baltic countries or Poland, although this wouldn't be a large-scale armed attack on these nations, multiple outlets reported last month.
Western officials say Russia is already waging a "hybrid" war against NATO, referring to a range of activities stopping short of open fighting. This can be cyberattacks, information campaigns or the targeting of vulnerable infrastructure like power grids or undersea cables.
European countries are hurrying to increase their defense spending in the face of this threat, although Moscow has already dedicated a huge chunk of its GDP to its military and is pumping out hundreds of tanks, armored vehicles and artillery systems each month.
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