Russian Invasion of Ukraine 2022: Time to Reconsider Small Drones?

Abstract

In May 2022, an Estonian-Russian man was arrested at the Estonian border with Russia for attempting to supply the Russian armed forces with crowdfunded drones. The case had two intertwined striking aspects: the law under which the individual was prosecuted and the drones themselves. While it is no revelation that drones are dual-use goods, the drones in question were three DJI Mini 2, which, owing to their small size and features, are exempt from the current European Union (EU) restrictions on the export of dual-use goods. Such small commercial drones have proven to be excellent for aerial surveillance and indirect fire correction on the battlefield. Consequently, the individual was prosecuted for ‘knowingly supporting a foreign act of aggression’ based on a newly added provision to the Estonian Penal Code.This paper discusses the growing importance of commercial small drones on the battlefield, which are not included in Annex I of the EU Dual-Use Regulation, as well as the implications of this on the EU’s dual-use goods export restrictions, and the legal framework that is available to EU member states for preventing the delivery of such drones to support a war of aggression. The paper is divided into three sections, the first dedicated to the role of small drones on the battlefield in Ukraine, the second to the EU’s dual-use export restrictions and the third to the role of domestic legal frameworks that may prohibit exports of such drones through laws criminalizing aggression.