He Made a Gadget to Amuse Pets. Then He Turned to Killer Drones
An entrepreneur behind drones that make the final strike themselves epitomizes the transformation of Ukraine’s civilian technology industry into a defense powerhouse. A drone with a weighted dummy explosive attached. Credit... Mauricio Lima for The New York Times By Andrew E. Kramer Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine The New York Times , April 9, 2026, 5:14 a.m. ET The device used many of the same electronic components as the most lethal weapons of modern warfare. It was operated remotely. It could recognize images. It fired a laser. Well, a laser pointer. The device, Petcube, was created by a Ukrainian entrepreneur, Yaroslav Azhnyuk, and his team. It is a smartphone-controlled gadget for remotely watching and entertaining dogs and cats when they are home alone. When Mr. Azhnyuk first tested it on a colleague’s lonely, incessantly barking dog, the animal jumped around wildly chasing the laser, he said. Petcube is now sold in dozens of countries. But the company’s founders have mov...