The former Army Chief’s warnings come in the aftermath of Ukraine’s June 1 attack, which involved 117 drones smuggled into Russia disguised as construction material.

Former Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane has called for urgent policy and legislative action to counter emerging drone threats to critical infrastructure in India, following Ukraine’s long-range drone strike on multiple Russian airbases in a covert operation codenamed Operation Spider’s Web.

In an opinion piece in The Print, General Naravane wrote: “What these drone attacks have magnified is that there is no classical front line and that the entire country is the battlefield.” He urged the government to declare ‘no-fly zones’ near vulnerable areas and enforce them through severe penalties under the National Security Act, rather than treat drone violations as minor civil infractions.