October 20, 2025: On June 1st, Ukraine once again demonstrated its ability to strike targets deep inside Russia without suffering casualties. This was achieved using over a hundred drones transported deep into Russia on Russian cargo trucks. Many were driven by Russians with orders to abandon the vehicles at specific locations. Then, under remote control, the large crates the trucks were carrying opened and launched over a hundred drones at Russian airfields, destroying about a quarter of Russia's strategic aircraft. No Ukrainian lives were lost in an operation that destroyed $7 billion worth of aircraft. This cost Ukraine less than $200,000.

Ukraine continues to conduct drone attacks on military and economic targets throughout Russia. These avoid civilian targets and often hit outlying buildings at civilian airports. Foreigners witness these attacks and contradict false Russian propaganda about them when they return home. Russian civilians also notice that Ukrainian drone attacks avoid harming civilians.

The growing Ukrainian use of drones means that Ukrainian casualties continue to decline while Russian losses continue to climb. So far, Russia has lost over a million soldiers, dead and wounded, and another million soldiers and military-age men who fled the country. Ukrainian losses have been fewer than 100,000 dead, with about ten percent of them civilians.

While Russia has also adopted drone warfare, copying Ukraine, it continues to use mass frontal infantry attacks in hopes of overrunning Ukrainian defenders. That rarely happens because Ukrainians use surveillance drones to observe attack preparations and the advance of Russian troops into combat.

Early in the war, Russia had and soon lost most of its 12,000-strong tank force from 2022. Currently, Russia has fewer than 3,000 tanks and uses them sparingly. Ukrainian drones can quickly and efficiently destroy a Russian tank or disable it, prompting the crew to abandon it, allowing Ukrainians to take possession. Otherwise, more Ukrainian drones will come along later to finish the tank off. Most current Ukrainian tanks were captured from the Russians because tank crews saw no point in remaining in their tanks, waiting for drones to kill them.

Ukraine only uses tanks in an operation once it is certain there are no Russian drones in the vicinity. Russia can’t be as certain of the absence of Ukrainian drones because Ukrainian drones usually control the air and can drive most Russian drones out of an area where a Ukrainian offensive is being assembled.

Ukraine is increasingly using land and naval drones. Naval drones took control of the Black Sea by early 2024, and that area remains under Ukrainian control, enabling Ukraine to continue its grain exports, which bring in $11 billion a year. These ports are also where most Ukrainian imports enter the country.

Drones and drone warfare were largely invented and continue to be developed by Ukrainians. This includes becoming the largest producer of drones in the world. Currently, Ukraine produces nearly 400,000 drones a month and treats them like rounds of ammunition. Drones are more versatile than artillery shells or rockets. Most drones are flown by operators ten or more kilometers away in bunkers. If these bunkers are attacked by Russian drones, the inhabitants close the blast-resistant door and wait for the attack to end.

Russia has copied Ukrainian drone developments but is always months behind and suffers heavier drone losses in Ukraine because many Ukrainian civilians still living near the combat zone act as air defense spotters. Since the first year of the war, these civilians have had apps on their phones that automatically report to air defense control headquarters in real time. Russia has no such information advantage and suffers heavier drone losses.

After about a year of fighting, drones accounted for about half of combat deaths. By now, they account for over 80 percent of deaths, with virtually no losses to the Ukrainians.