Since the beginning of 2024, the Defense Forces of Ukraine have carried out dozens of attacks with long-range drones on russia's territory. Oil refineries were the main targets. russia's losses amounted to billions of dollars. It should be noted that drone attacks have become regular. For example, on Friday, June 28, an oil depot in Tambov Oblast was attacked, as well as on June 27, the Redkinsky experemental plant was attacked for the second time, etc.
Ukrainian drones attack targets on russian territory that are hundreds or even more than a thousand kilometers from the frontline. According to open source data, in May, one of Ukrainian drones flew more than 1,800 kilometers to reach the target. This became a record for the range of attack drones in service with the Defense Forces of Ukraine.
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The Ministry of Defense of the russian federation regularly reports that "all targets downed". But sometimes real massive attacks take place involving up to a hundred drones of various types.
Successful Ukrainian strikes mean that russian air defense is not able to cover such large areas. Ukrainian experts are carefully analyzing the available data to develop further routes for drones to reach various targets.
At the same time, russian propagandists decided to justify the helplessness of their air defense in an interesting way. They claim that drones are launched not from the territory of Ukraine, but from the territory of the russian federation by saboteurs. In this case, we are talking about the statement of the Ministry of Defense of the russian federation about the alleged downing of four UAVs in the sky over Tver Oblast on June 27, and two more over Moscow Oblast.
russians claim that drones cannot cover the distance of hundreds of kilometers and stay invisible to their air defense. However, the fact that russians deployed even Pantsir-SA anti-aircraft systems from the Arctic defend Moscow suggests otherwise. In can be concluded that occupiers do not have sufficient capabilities to protect all their objects from attacks.
If russians had enough resources, they would hardly have decided to copy Ukrainian idea of mobile fire groups. In March this year, occupiers announced the creation of such units. They will be armed with ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft autocannons on trucks and heavy machine guns on pickup trucks.
Earlier Defense Express reported that Ukraine had received Skynode S universal machine vision for drones from American company Auterion.
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