WASHINGTON -- As Iranian drone and missile attacks test American defenses in the Middle East, a visiting Ukrainian delegation says the United States is now facing a battlefield reality Kyiv has been adapting to since the early months of Russias full-scale invasion.

The mass and scale attack of cheap dronesreally changes how systems perform, Maryna Hrytsenko, executive director of the Kyiv-based Snake Island Institute, told RFE/RL in an interview during a visit to Washington on March 24.

Her warning comes as Ukrainian officials seek to translate frontline experience into strategic lessons for Western partners -- arguing that Ukraines war has become a real-world stress test for modern air defense.

At the center of that message is a stark economic imbalance. Advanced systems like the Patriot air defense system remain highly effective but using them against waves of low-cost drones is unsustainable over time.

We understood for a very long time that it's not cost-effective to use $4.5 million missiles for Patriots to shoot down a $500,000 Shahed drone, Hrytsenko said.

A War Ukraine Knows Well

The Ukrainian delegations US visit -- following appearances at a security forum in Miami and continuing meetings across Washington -- comes as conflicts involving Iran highlight vulnerabilities that Ukraine has been documenting since 2022.

The group includes not only policy and analytical staff from the Snake Island Institute, but also Ukrainian military practitioners directly involved in air defense operations.

Among them are an air force representative who works closely with US systems and a senior officer from the Army Corps responsible for implementing air defense across the front line.

According to Hrytsenko, their role is to provide battlefield-validated insight into how Western systems perform under sustained, large-scale attacks -- something the US has had limited experience with until recently.