A Ukrainian soldier operates a UAV (Photo: Reuters).
Yury Fedorenko, commander of the Achilles Company of the 92nd Special Aircraft Brigade, admitted to Ukrainian state television Suspilne on December 12 that Russia has a huge advantage over Ukraine when it comes to drones.
"In priority frontline areas, we have the following ratio: for every one UAV Ukraine has, Russia has 5-7 of them," he said.
According to him, this difference has led to different strategies between the two sides. Because they do not have the same potential as their opponents, Ukraine is forced to use UAVs more carefully.
Ukraine only deploys drones “when we have a target,” while Russia can deploy first-person view (FPV) drones that loiter in airspace to detect attack targets.
UAVs have become a prominent feature of the war in Ukraine, as both Kiev and Moscow have increasingly deployed drone models and tactics.
Both Russia and Ukraine have inflicted great damage on their opponents with UAVs, making this weapon considered the future of combat operations.
However, Melinda Haring, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Business Insider that despite technological advances on both sides, Ukraine still lags behind Russia in its efforts to use drones.
She said that Ukraine lacks UAV operators, has fewer UAVs, and the quality of UAVs cannot be compared to Russia. This has created a growing gap between the two sides.
Bob Hamilton, a retired US Army colonel, told the Washington Post in August that Ukraine does not have the capability to use drones to “strike deep into Russian territory and at enough targets to erode Moscow’s will to fight.”
Last month, Reuters reported that soldiers who operate Ukraine’s fleet of small, cheap attack drones expressed concern that, despite pioneering their use, they were now being outpaced by Russia as Moscow increasingly invests money and resources in the UAV sector.
“Russian UAVs are always in the air, day and night. We can see that they have mass-produced drones for reconnaissance, surveillance and attack,” said Komrad, a 34-year-old drone platoon commander.
Russia has ramped up production of FPV drones this year, with a Russian state-owned defense company announcing in May that it plans to start producing up to 3,000 of the devices per month.
Samuel Bendett, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said Russia has significantly increased production of FPV UAVs through both the private and state sectors. Russia is expected to increase production capacity next year.
Meanwhile, the majority of Ukraine's low-cost FPV UAV resources come from civil organizations and individual donations to purchase them.
Ukraine is working to increase its UAV production. Ukrainian Digital Minister Mykhailo Fedorov told Reuters in September that Kiev would increase its total drone production by more than 100 times by 2023.
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