6 November 2026

Russia’s war in Ukraine may have triggered a new arms race in drone warfare, but it has another enduring and deadly legacy as well: its impact on drug-resistant infections. The conditions of conflict have led to a 10-fold increase in potentially lethal infections, pushing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to a dangerous new tipping point where the growth of the most difficult to treat, multidrug-resistant infections is now beginning to outpace antibiotic development.

Not long ago, the opposite was the case. Prior to the second world war, and the advent of antibiotics, infections routinely killed more soldiers than combat itself. The US government and military then invested heavily in the discovery, production and global distribution of antibiotics, transforming penicillin from a laboratory curiosity into a drug produced on an industrial scale. Antibiotics became strategically vital — almost as essential as ammunition.