In the autumn of 2022, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi pulled a book off his shelf — force ratios, artillery counts, manpower tables — and told the woman across from him that if he followed it, Ukraine would lose, for sure. Then he gave her a job: robotize the front line.

That woman is Eveline Buchatskiy. A Berkeley-trained chemical engineer who moved to Kyiv in 2007, whose first Ukrainian investment became Preply, and who helped lead a company with 850 engineers in Kyiv when the invasion began. In July 2023 she launched D3 — Dare to Defend Democracy — a pure-play defense fund at a moment when no bank would open an account for one. Three years later: 27 portfolio companies across air, land, sea and the software binding them.

Sam Cook and Rob Lee sat down with her in Kyiv for the map of how defense innovation actually gets funded and proven. Why she tells founders to drop the dual-use disguise. How a hustler goes from idea to procured product in three months. Merops and the first reliable intercepts of Shaheds. The German-Ukrainian JV that turned battlefield credibility into a $128 million Bundeswehr contract for 10,000 strike drones. And the unit that bolted Starlink onto a 100km drone and more than doubled its reach — what Eveline calls free R&D from the best military laboratory on earth.

Then it turns to Washington. Russia is doubling its Unmanned Systems Forces from 87,000 to 165,000. The US Army disbanded its one experimental drone battalion. Policy still takes six months to approve one change to a fielded drone. The Pentagon just cancelled a lessons-learned briefing from the Ukrainian officers offering to give it. If America learns less from this war than China does, we have failed.

And her definition of victory: not a line on the map, but true independence, a young generation that comes home, and a 900-year problem settled for good.

Recorded in Kyiv, August 2026.

KEY MOMENTS 5:15 - The road from chemical engineering to Kyiv 15:12 - Zaluzhnyi: "Your job is to robotize the front line for me" 16:46 - July 2023: capital in hand, and no bank would take it 19:01 - The thesis: drop the dual-use disguise and commit 20:54 - Certified and procured in three months, if you hustle 26:44 - What AI is actually doing on the battlefield 37:06 - The coming revolution in radars 42:25 - "If you're not in Ukraine, you're not in defense" 48:57 - Six months to approve one change to a program of record 52:10 - Russia doubles Unmanned Systems Forces to 165,000 63:23 - Merops, and the $128 million Bundeswehr contract 69:10 - What victory actually means

Produced by the Borderlands Foundation.

Support our work: https://theborderlandsfoundation.org

Why War Matters — Sam's talk for MilTech Founders: https://ukraineforfounders.com/talk/

All episodes: https://ukrainemilitaryhistory.org/

Guests: Eveline Buchatskiy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eveline-buchatskiy Rob Lee: https://x.com/RALee85

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