Russia will never defeat Ukraine, so long as RKBA (Right to Keep and Bear Arms) is alive and well (along with dreadful memories of Soviet occupation)!
Shotguns are back, by popular demand!
Ukrainian civilians are buying shotguns and shotgun ammunition (12ga and 20ga) as fast as they can be produced/imported!
Farmers, bus-drivers, etc keep shotguns nearby, as active defense against FPV (First-Person View) drones. Russia ruthlessly employs these small kamikaze drones, armed with explosives, against vehicles, buildings, and individuals, soldiers and civilians alike!
Commercial shooting ranges in Ukraine now offer training courses and lessons in shooting-down FPVs, and shotguns (using BB shot through #4 buckshot) are the most readily-available man-portable tool, and the one most likely to be effective, at least at relatively short range.
Airborne FPVs are still not easy targets, but they are delicate and vulnerable. Accordingly, shotguns surely work better for the task than do pistols or rifles, and more than a few FBVs have thus been shot-down. In addition, in Ukraine shotguns are plentiful and essentially unregulated.
Drones (of all sizes) have radically changed the nature of warfare, and Ukraine is “ground zero” for drone tactical development and employment.
The whole world is watching and taking notes!
“Morality and expediency coincide more than the cynics allow”
Roy Hattersley
/John
