Today, March 3, marks the start of the Drone Line project in the Ukrainian military, Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov announced. Initiated by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi, this effort unites the five most prominent detachments of drone operators to create a single "network of specialized units that will receive modern equipment, essential resources, and expert personnel," reads the Minister's statement.
"Drone Line is about scaling the most effective solutions in the army. Specifically, it aims to establish a 'kill zone' within 10–15 km, making enemy advances impossible without heavy losses while providing [Ukrainian] infantry with aerial support and cover," Umerov specified. The project website also highlights the goal to "detect and destroy targets before they can even reach our positions."
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Participating in the program are four separate Unmanned Systems Regiments: the 20th Regiment K-2, the 429th Regiment Achilles, 427th Regiment RAROG and the 414th Brigade Magyar's Birds of the Ukrainian Land Forces, as well as the Phoenix Regiment of the Border Guard Service — all hailed as Ukraine's most effective military drone users.
With an additional UAH 4.6 billion (over $110 million) in funding from the Ministry of Defense, these units will receive more unmanned aerial vehicles to use in operations, electronic warfare systems, transport, and other combat necessities.
The announcement follows the beginning of a joint recruitment campaign by the mentioned UAS units, except for border guards, who have different procedures. Regardless of the allegiance to a specific regiment, all recruits are enticed by specialized drone combat training with a focus on practice, advanced methodology and techniques of intercepting enemy drones.
From a broader perspective, Defense Express notes some resemblance of this initiative to an earlier civilian campaign. Named the Pullstron, a fundraiser started by a commercial sector company, namely the OKKO filling station network, and the Come Back Alive charity fund adopted a comprehensive approach to defense equipment procurements.
From February 2024 to January 2025, the initiative gathered UAH 500 mln (~$12 mln) used this money to deliver ten kits of equipment comprising FPV drones, night vision drone bombers (Kazhan and R34 types), pickup trucks and thermal imagers for drivers, and reconnaissance UAVs (fixed-winged Mini Shark and Mavic/Matrice quadcopters).
Delivered to military units, each set equipped troops with all tools for a successful mission, resulting in $220 million worth of losses inflicted on the russian invasion army, according to the official press service of the Air Assault Forces Command of Ukraine, highlighting the effectiveness of this strategy. Editor's memo: the figure in this paragraph was updated due to a typo.
The new state-run Drone Line project seems to mimic this approach by providing the selected units with aerial reconnaissance tools and electronic warfare systems for self-protection.
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