Ukraine's "Army of Drones" Struck 355 Russian Targets In the Past Week

The use of drones, already dominant, is actually growing due to their relatively inexpensive cost, their accuracy and their effectiveness against armor and prepared defensive positions. JL 

Thibault Spirlet reports in Business Insider, image Alina Smutko, Reuters:

Ukraine's "army of drones" is pounding Russian forces at an unprecedented rate, hitting an "absolute record" number of Russian targets last week. Between October 30 and November 6, Ukrainian airborne drones claimed a record 335 Russian targets, including 36 tanks, 83 armored combat vehicles, 18 self-propelled artillery systems, and 72 trucks. Between October 23rd and October 30th, the previous week, Ukrainian drones hit 65 howitzers, 42 tanks, and 14 self-propelled artillery systems.

Ukraine's "army of drones" is pounding Russian forces at an unprecedented rate, hitting an "absolute record" number of Russian targets last week, a Ukrainian official said.

Between October 30 and November 6, Ukrainian airborne drones claimed a record 335 Russian targets.

The figures were outlined by Ukraine's Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, in a post on Telegram.

"Last week, our soldiers hit 335 Russian strongpoints: an absolute record," he said in a post on X.

 

Both posts gave a breakdown of claimed successes.

Like all of Ukraine's figures for Russian losses, these were unverified.

Western officials have sometimes given statistics that differ from Ukraine's, though its claims about the destruction of individual pieces or groups of the equipment can often be confirmed.

The unverified figures said that in the record week Ukraine also destroyed 36 tanks, 83 armored combat vehicles, 18 self-propelled artillery systems, and 72 trucks.

 

Fedorov has shared data on Ukrainian drone strikes on a weekly basis. Last week, he posted data claiming that Ukrainian drones hit 65 howitzers, 42 tanks, and 14 self-propelled artillery systems between October 23 and October 30.

Since the start of the war, Ukraine has extensively developed and used drones to target Russian soldiers, destroy Russian tanks worth millions, and damage ships.

However, Ukraine still has a long way to go before it can catch up with Russia, military analysts previously told Insider.

Melissa Haring, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, had just returned from a trip to the front lines in Ukraine when she spoke with Insider in late October. She pointed to the lack of drone pilots and sophisticated drones, as well as the poor quality of Ukrainian equipment.

 

"They're shoddy," she said of the drones. "They're made in Chinese factories, and there's no attention to detail. They're missing pieces. They're broken when they arrive."

However, Ukraine is trying to change that by moving away from China, the world's biggest drone maker, and ramping up its own domestic production, Fedorov said in September, per the Associated Press.

Russia, for its part, is making drones with engines sourced from Chinese e-commerce giant AliExpress, a Ukrainian official recently claimed, and using larger Iranian-made Shahed-136 exploding drones that have helped its forces keep up attacks on Ukraine.

Russian forces have also used Lancet drones, loitering munitions that stay near their targets before crashing into them, which have proven effective in blunting Ukraine's counteroffensive, as Insider previously reported.