Ukraine’s long-range drone bombing drive hitting military and industrial areas inside Russia has had a surprising series of victories over the last few weeks. The most eye-catching triumph was the episode on Russia’s Morozovsk airbase, which Ukrainian officials argue damaged Russian jets and eliminated stockpiles of munitions including glide bombs employed to pummel Ukraine’s military and cities.
This improvement has come as no surprise: Ukrainian military planners have been performing to capitalize on Russia’s air defence exposures from the first year of the full-scale attack. Ukraine’s raids have escalated significantly since the start of 2024, with oil refineries and airfields appearing as the priority targets.
In a July discussion with Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Ukrainian leader-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi demonstrated that Ukrainian drones had hit around two hundred sites linked to Russia’s war machine. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has promised to continue increasing the quality and amount of Ukraine’s long-range drone fleet. Highlighting the importance of drones to the Ukrainian war action, Ukraine recently became the foremost country in the world to establish a new branch of the military devoted to drone warfare.
Long-range aggression drones are a good fit for Ukraine’s little offensive capabilities. Kyiv needs to be capable of striking military targets inside Russia but is stopped from doing so with Western-supplied missiles due to limitations imposed by the country’s partners. While Ukraine has some ability to produce its missiles domestically, this is inadequate for a sustained bombing campaign.
Drones are helping Ukraine to overcome these barriers. Ukrainian drone exhibition has grown dramatically over the past two-and-a-half years. The low expense of manufacturing a long-range drone relative to the harm it can cause to Russian military and industrial buildings makes it in many ways the perfect weapon for a cash-strapped but creative nation like Ukraine.
Ukraine’s drone industry is a mixed ecosystem featuring hundreds of participating businesses producing different models. The Ukrainian military has utilised a variety of drones with different characteristics for raids inside Russia, making the campaign even more difficult for Russia’s air defences.
The decentralized essence of Ukraine’s drone manufacturing sector also makes it challenging for Russia to target. Even if the Kremlin can determine and hit individual production areas located across Ukraine, this is improbable to have a major effect on the country’s overall output. Since 2022, Ukraine has taken many measures to reduce bureaucracy and facilitate collaboration between drone makers and the military. The result is a sector skilled in adapting to changing battlefield situations and able to implement innovations fast and effectively. This includes measures to create AI-enabled drones capable of operating without an operator, making it far more challenging for Russia to jam.
Ukraine’s drone agenda is the biggest success report to emerge from the country’s vibrant security tech sector and is supporting Ukraine to even out the odds against its far more extensive and wealthier adversary. The country’s allies recognize the importance of drones for the Ukrainian military and have developed a drone coalition to improve the supply of drones from abroad. This blend of international support and Ukrainian invention spells trouble for Russia. It will likely lead to increasingly effective and plentiful long-range walkouts in the months ahead.
