Preston Stewart
West Point graduate and Afghanistan veteran who covers the Ukraine war on YouTube, the War and Conflict podcast, and the Defense Tech News newsletter
Preston Stewart (West Point graduate and Afghanistan veteran who covers the Ukraine war on YouTube, the War and Conflict podcast, and the Defense Tech News newsletter) has appeared as a guest on 1 episode in TMT. Topics they speak about most include Mission command, Drone warfare, Foreign policy of the second Trump administration.
In their words
Positions and remarks grouped by topic, each with the exact quote and where it was said.
Mission command
Stewart argues it is not the military's role to decide whether to go to war, only to advise on capabilities and options.
“it's not the military's job to make the decision to go to war or not”
Lex Fridman Podcast: #504 – Russia-Ukraine War: Putin, Zelenskyy, Drones and the Future of Warfare (Nov 10, 2026) · Listen from 2:00:57
Stewart argues Ukraine's bottom-up, Western-style initiative contrasts with Russia's persistently top-down command culture.
“Whereas on the Russian side, still to today is still top down driven. They are given their orders. They are given their place on a map”
Lex Fridman Podcast: #504 – Russia-Ukraine War: Putin, Zelenskyy, Drones and the Future of Warfare (Nov 10, 2026) · Listen from 1:24:49
Drone warfare
Stewart believes the war has advanced warfare by decades in a short time because it is fought between modern economies.
“I think we jumped decades in terms of what warfare will be in a very short period of time because of where it's playing out”
Lex Fridman Podcast: #504 – Russia-Ukraine War: Putin, Zelenskyy, Drones and the Future of Warfare (Nov 10, 2026) · Listen from 50:12
Stewart says that, contrary to the impression from videos, it often takes 10 to 30 small drones to destroy a tank.
“Realistically, we're seeing 10, 20, I think upwards of 30 of these small drones at times being utilized to actually eliminate a tank”
Lex Fridman Podcast: #504 – Russia-Ukraine War: Putin, Zelenskyy, Drones and the Future of Warfare (Nov 10, 2026) · Listen from 28:35
Foreign policy of the second Trump administration
Stewart suggests Trump underestimated how hard ending the war would be and lost focus, ceding U.S. leadership and leverage.
“I get the impression that maybe the president thought this would be easier to resolve than it has been, maybe lost some focus”
Lex Fridman Podcast: #504 – Russia-Ukraine War: Putin, Zelenskyy, Drones and the Future of Warfare (Nov 10, 2026) · Listen from 2:36:19
Russian invasion of Ukraine
Stewart admits he expected Western sanctions to damage Russia's economy far more than they have.
“I thought that the sanctions would have done a lot more damage. At this point, I think a lot of people did, and it just hasn't”
Lex Fridman Podcast: #504 – Russia-Ukraine War: Putin, Zelenskyy, Drones and the Future of Warfare (Nov 10, 2026) · Listen from 2:28:44
Appearances
#504 – Russia-Ukraine War: Putin, Zelenskyy, Drones and the Future of WarfareLex Fridman Podcast · Nov 10, 2026 · 3 h 1 min
Lex Fridman talks with military analysts Michael Kofman and Preston Stewart about the state of the Russia-Ukraine war, drone warfare, Bakhmut, Prigozhin's mutiny, leadership, and paths to peace.
Often appears with
- Lex Fridman · 1 shared episode
- Michael Kofman · 1 shared episode