A nightmare for the Kremlin: Ukraine is already launching more long-range drones than Russia

Ukraine's growing capacity to produce large quantities of drones is beginning to turn the tide in the Russian invasion.

The design and operation of the Ukrainian Fire Point FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile
The new tactics implemented by the Ukrainian Air Force with its F-16 fighters

The Ukrainian Armed Forces are demonstrating an increasing capability and skill in operating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in their defense against Russian invaders, not only on the battlefield but also at a strategic level. In fact, on February 6, 2024, Ukraine became the first country to dedicate a branch of its Armed Forces to drones, the so-called Unmanned Systems Forces of Ukraine (SBS), a sign of the importance Kyiv attaches to these weapons systems that are revolutionizing modern warfare.

Yesterday, the young French analyst Clément Molin published a review of the latest figures for long-range drone attacks in this war, after Ukraine launched at least 283 drones towards southern Russia, mainly against the port of Novorossiysk, managing to hit a Russian frigate, the "Admiral Essen" (751).

"For months and even years, Ukraine's indigenous long range drone and missile program has been improving. Ukraine first launched 1 000 drones into Russia is august 2024, 3 000 in July 2025 and 7 000 in march 2026!" notes the French analyst, based on information published by the Russian Federation's Ministry of Defense.

"Ukrainian strikes for the past month have been systematically hitting oil export terminals, pipelines and refineries. This is aimed to prevent Russia from using the war in Iran to finance its war on Ukraine," Molin commented. "The number of geolocated long range strikes has increased in march, and this mainly counts strikes filmed by the drones themselves."

Regarding Russian drones, Molin states: "Drones are more and more numerous, despite a recent decrease. For now 8 months, we hae around 5 500 Shahed, Geran and Gerbera drones launched deep into Ukraine.Missile strikes remain very unpredictable. Russia is firing missiles around 5 times a month into Ukraine, into single concentrated strikes. Those strikes follow the production of new missiles. In general, 100 to 200 missiles are fired monthly, Ukraine obviously needs more AD."

Clément Molin uses this graph to show the current balance of long-range drone attacks. We can see that the number of Ukrainian attacks with this type of drone was slightly higher than the Russian number between May and August 2024, after which Russia took an increasingly considerable lead. In 2025 Ukraine began to close the gap, and by March 2026 it had already surpassed Russia in these attacks.

On February 8, 2026, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stated: "Aviation is one of the promising areas for investment in Ukraine. We are highly technological. Today, we have 450 companies that manufacture drones, 40–50 of them are top-tier. Everyone wants to invest. Next year – 2026 – will be the year of investment in our technologies, above all drones. This is a major industry, a new industry. Based on the volume of financing coming into Ukraine during the war, it is the largest industry currently operating in Ukraine."

This Ukrainian drone industry is becoming a nightmare for the Kremlin, as Ukraine is increasingly using these long-range drones to attack military and strategic targets both in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories and on Russian territory itself, causing serious problems for the Russian energy industry. With this incursion, it's as if Putin kicked a beehive and is now watching the bees swarm him.

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Photos: 1 окремий центр БпС СБС. Images of long-range drones operated by the First Center of Unmanned Systems Forces of Ukraine.