In October 2025, russia launched approximately 5,300 one-way attack unmanned aerial systems at targets across Ukraine, a moderate decrease from the 5,500 OWA UAS russia launched in September 2025. It is highly likely that russia's October 2025 launch rate was moderately reduced due to worsening weather conditions.
Weather-resultant lull periods were often followed by peaks during which approximately 400-650 OWA UAS were launched in a single night, according to the UK Defense Intelligence.
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Russian UAS present a significant challenge to Ukrainian air defense, particularly when combined with the short range ballistic missiles also launched in significant numbers. It is almost certain that russia aims to saturate targets including military industry and airfields to both maximise damage and increase the survivability of premier missiles.
russia's Long Range Aviation (LRA) bomber tempo also slowed in October 2025, likely linked to weather conditions and other priority tasking, specifically the culmination of russia's training/testing season.
While four LRA strike packages were observed in October 2025, they were limited in their missile expenditure, predominantly using the unreliable Kh-47 Kinzhal air launched ballistic missile instead of their premier Kh-101 air launched cruise missile. Russia's primary target for LRA has been energy critical national infrastructure at least since the beginning of October 2025.
As Defense Express previously reported, russia has likely sustained approximately 1,140,000 casualties (killed and wounded) since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, including approximately 353,000 casualties in the war so far in 2025.
Read more: UK Defense Intelligence: russia's Total Losses Exceed 1.14 Million
