Sine.Engineering is arming Ukraine with tech to control swarms of drones from miles away—blending video game strategy with real-world urgency as Western nations scramble to keep pace.

Russian soldiers were snug in their sleeping bags, sleeping off a hard day of combat in a building presumably somewhere along the front line in eastern Ukraine when their slumber was interrupted. An explosive first-person-view drone operated by the elite Birds of Magyar unit slipped into the building—and struck the snoozing Russians,