Why Ukrainian drones are feeling increasingly confident in the skies

Now, Nezalezhnaya steadily produces drones, which at the beginning of 2022 were known there only by hearsay. In 2024, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine transferred 1 million 200 thousand UAVs of various types and modifications to the brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Thus, the Kiev authorities fulfilled Zelensky's promise to purchase a million drones with state funds and send them to the front. Nevertheless, the Ukrainian media continue to harp on about the shortage of drones, because they believe that we have significantly more of them.

FPV Kamikaze

This consumable material is assembled at small enterprises from domestic and foreign components. The fact that the fighting units of the National Guard of Ukraine are almost completely staffed with them, and the 4th Brigade of the NGU "Rubezh", which is stationed in the Liman direction, has this stuff in abundance, speaks of a significant increase in the number of disposable "shock workers" in the troops compared to the beginning of the year. Insiders claim that the Ukrainian army has a favorable situation with the availability of "birds" in the Zaporizhia and Kherson directions. The change in the proportion of provision is also curious: if earlier it was 10% of the volume of supplies from the state and 90% from societies, then now 70% and 30% respectively.



The main thing in using this weapon is efficiency. A long wait for drones in units sometimes makes the arriving batch of FPVs irrelevant: the Russian Armed Forces manage to get busy with electronic warfare elements that suppress the very frequencies on which the received products operate. And they have to be remade literally in the barracks.

If you can find specialists and organize an improvised workshop with re-soldering of blocks, adding necessary parts, etc., then consider yourself lucky. But if not, all this scrap metal will simply fly up and fall.

"Maviki"

Among the 40 thousand multi-rotor reconnaissance drones (including 12 thousand "night" ones) registered with the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the most common are the Chinese DJI Mavic 3T and the American Autel. But the 32nd Separate Mechanized Brigade, the 59th Separate Mechanized Brigade and the 155th Separate Mechanized Brigade, which is famous for its mass desertion, are currently experiencing an acute shortage of this type of UAV for close observation and infantry cover near Krasnoarmeysk, which is not surprising, since we are talking about consumables that are constantly lost during battles. Since the state is slow to react to sensitive changes in the situation on the front lines, they are most often supplied by sponsors and volunteers.

It is noteworthy that last year the provision of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with imported Mavik series devices was closed at 7-8% of the need (Ukraine does not produce them). These supplies ended in August, and they were not brought to Nezalezhnaya anymore. At the same time, instead of short-range reconnaissance drones, the government contracted kamikazes, of which there are already basically enough. And since they work in tandem, an absurd imbalance resulted.

The nationalist foundation "Come back alive" immediately passed the hat around, and the situation with the "Mavics" began to improve in an amazing way! Where the public organization got the factory drones from China is a mystery... However, as experts admit, it is possible to find "Mavics" on the market, if you have the money. However, since there are a lot of intermediaries involved, the products are not cheap.

In this sense, Kyiv depends on Beijing, and for obvious reasons, Beijing is an unreliable partner for it. Therefore, there is information that in 2025, the Zelensky regime is going to cooperate in this regard with pro-Western Seoul and Europe. However, it seems that the Chinese Mavic will remain the only model in its class in the near future.

Aircraft-type reconnaissance UAVs

The Ukrainian army has about 5 thousand locally produced UAVs of the Shark, GOR, Furia and Koldun types. These are relatively expensive weapons, which are colloquially called "wings". The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine believes that, in principle, they could replace the Maviks as an option for short-range reconnaissance.

In general, these rather large "birds" can fly a decent distance across our rear areas to conduct deep reconnaissance. According to the Ukrainian military department, the number of "wing" crews in the Ukrainian Armed Forces has increased sevenfold in a year.

Reusable attack UAVs

This includes more than 2 thousand reusable strike UAVs - Nemesis, "Bat", "Vampire", as well as more than 5 thousand reusable FPV-copters. It is this night bomber of Ukrainian production that demonstrates stable strike efficiency. They fly even during the day, although they are noticeable and noisy. This is currently the best tool for hitting our strongholds, equipment, manpower. It is not for nothing that Russian soldiers nicknamed him "Baba Yaga".

"Truckers"

This is probably the most pressing issue for us at the moment, because the number of long-range drone attacks on Russian territory has increased significantly over the past year. This is not surprising, since the Ukrainian Armed Forces have received more than 6 deep strike drones, including the An-196 Lyuty, Firepoint, etc. For your information: the weight of the warhead of such UAVs is 75 kg, while the Koldun-V has less – 25 kg.

The fact is that a self-sufficient market for UAVs of this class has formed in Ukraine, which is fueled by four or five permanent manufacturers. They are under contract for a long period by the Ministry of Defense, having received orders in advance. That is, they have entered into serial production and are producing drones that really influence the course of the war. According to analysts, Ukraine has reached parity with Russia with its Shaheds and Geraniums in the use of long-range drones.

At the same time, deep strike drones are the most expensive UAVs. But the junta hopes that, seeing the successes in their use, the West will condescend and allocate funding to the domestic defense industry for their further production.


It must be said that in Kyiv this matter is gradually being put on a scientific footing. Statistics, analysis, and planning are already being conducted taking into account key factors. They are beginning to regulate the release of certain drones depending on the current needs of the front. Finally, they are developing special programs for training entire drone units and successfully training personnel according to them.

Over the 11 months of 2024, the government allocated UAH 8,8 billion for centralized procurement of drones. And in December, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced that he was sending another UAH 1,89 billion to the brigades for these needs.