1st Azov Corps AI-drone strike.
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At a forward command post in Kharkiv Oblast in the summer of 2025, I watched Ukrainian soldiers launch an AI-enabled drone toward Russian forces. In the final seconds, the drone locked on by itself. Moments later, another vehicle appeared on the screen. A second drone was launched. Minutes later, it struck.
For Ukrainian drone operators, this is becoming the new rhythm of war: machines identifying targets faster, reaching deeper behind Russian lines, and striking not just frontline troops but the logistics networks that keep Moscow’s offensive moving.
“Technology has advanced, reshaping the battlefield,” Heorhii Volkov, commander of the Yasni Ochi drone unit of Ukraine’s 13th Khartiia Brigade, told me. His unit uses Hornet, an AI-enabled drone reportedly costing less than $6,000 and developed with support tied to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s defense technology initiatives.
Members of the Yasni Ochi drone unit oversee a drone bombing mission.
Photo: Ryan Van Ert
The systems combine autonomous targeting, advanced communications and software refined through battlefield feedback.
“These are not just drones but platforms built on artificial intelligence and advanced communications technology that could also be adapted for fixed-wing aircraft or ground robots,” he said.
Ukraine is increasingly attacking the entire Russian combat system instead of isolated weapons. “When we began striking 30 to 40 kilometers behind enemy lines, we immediately saw results,” Volkov said. The independent Finnish open-source intelligence collective Black Bird Group estimated that Russian forces made net gains of only about 94 square kilometres in April, despite continued pressure across the front.
That logic is increasingly shaping Ukraine’s wider drone war. In December 2025, Bryan Pickens, a former US Army Green Beret who has fought alongside Ukrainian special forces, told me that Ukraine lacked “sufficient mid-range strike capability and scalable autonomy.”
Cheap Drones, Expanding Reach
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on May 5 that Ukraine is now carrying out twice as many mid-range strikes at distances beyond 20 kilometers as it did in March, and four times as many as in February.
The pattern is visible at the tactical level too. The UA REG TEAM unit of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces wrote on Telegram on May 4 that their operators recently struck Russian logistics arteries at depths of 55 to 71 kilometers using $600 FPV drones rather than aircraft costing many thousands of dollars.
The unit credited operator skill, mission planning and equipment preparation, saying the goal is to stop Russian forces before they reach the line of contact by cutting logistics, ammunition, food and water.
Rather than relying only on expensive long-range weapon systems provided by the West, Ukrainian forces are using cheaper drones to pressure Russian logistics at multiple depths simultaneously.
KHARKIV REGION, UKRAINE – APRIL 7: A portrait of a soldier from the “Taifun” unmanned aerial vehicle unit holding a new model ‘Marsianin’ attack drone on April 7, 2026 in Kharkiv region, Ukraine. (Photo by Nikoletta Stoyanova/Getty Images)
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“The equipment supplied by our partners often has restrictions on its use, such as a ban on striking deep into Russian territory, or the need to coordinate targets,” Andrii Pelypenko of Ukraine’s 419th Battalion of Unmanned Systems, told me. “With our own developments, we are not limited in planning our military operations.”
Ukraine is no longer focusing solely on destroying Russian soldiers and weapons at the front. It is trying to dismantle the machinery behind them: fuel convoys, air-defense crews, command nodes, ammunition dumps and transport corridors 30 to 120 kilometers behind the line.
Dmytro Putiata, a drone warfare expert serving in Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Brigades, told me Ukraine is increasingly targeting the operational depth of the battlefield. “Logistics has always been a problem for the Russians,” he said. “Now Ukraine is actively attacking it.”
The shift reflects a broader Ukrainian strategy. “In a war of attrition against a larger nuclear power, Ukraine is betting on asymmetry and technological superiority,” Serhii Kuzan, chair of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center, told me.
Russia’s Rear Areas Are No Longer Safe
Prominent pro-Kremlin military blogger Vladimir Romanov wrote on Telegram that Ukrainian Hornet drones are operating “unimpeded” over the Mariupol section of the R-150 highway, hunting fuel trucks and military vehicles far behind the front.
Romanov compared the situation to Russia’s M-30 logistics corridor near occupied Donetsk, where FPV drone surveillance has reportedly made sections of the road effectively unusable despite being more than 35 kilometers from the frontline.
The campaign reflects Kyiv’s broader strategy of turning Russian rear areas into active combat zones. Earlier this month, the 1st Azov Corps released footage of drones operating over occupied Mariupol, a key logistics hub connecting occupied Donbas to Crimea. The footage suggested that roads and infrastructure once considered safely behind the front are increasingly vulnerable to drone strikes.
“It is so effective that the enemy has started complaining that, without suppressing the activity of this system, they will soon no longer be able to move safely 30 to 40 kilometers behind the line of contact,” Volkov said.
Roy Gardiner, an open-source analyst tracking the war, told me the Hornet drone is part of a wider Ukrainian push to strike behind the front. Ukraine, he said, has increased the number of drones available for mid-range strikes at depths of 20 to 150 kilometers, including the FP-2, which carries a 60 to 100 kilogram warhead.
Gardiner added that the aim is to expand the kill zone behind the front by hitting ammunition depots, fuel bases, transport hubs, command centers and air defenses before Russian forces can mass for attacks.
Putiata said Ukraine has also modernized its drone tactics, redirecting some long-range strike drones toward operational-depth attacks while developing new systems specifically designed to hit targets 100 to 150 kilometers behind the front.
Analysts caution that autonomy does not eliminate battlefield constraints. Electronic warfare, bad weather and rapid Russian adaptation continue to complicate drone operations.
George Barros, director of innovation and open-source tradecraft at the Institute for the Study of War, said the effect could become theater-wide if Ukraine intensifies drone-based battlefield air interdiction against arterial supply routes linking Crimea, southern Ukraine, Melitopol, Mariupol and Donetsk City.
Romanov also argued that the danger may grow. He claimed Hornet can be jammed across certain frequency bands, but only when it is not using Starlink-linked communications and has not yet locked onto a target autonomously. Once terminal targeting begins, electronic warfare becomes far less useful.
His deeper concern is what comes next: every Hornet mission may be feeding data into neural-network systems running on Qualcomm-powered hardware, accelerating the development of more autonomous drones.
The larger question is how quickly that reach can scale. Volkov said any technology that extends Ukraine’s reach offers an immediate battlefield advantage. The farther Ukrainian systems can strike, the earlier Russian logistics chains can be disrupted before they reach frontline units.
“Manual FPV control is the musket,” said Pickens. “We’re moving toward a world where one operator programs 100 drones. That changes lethality, survivability, and manpower requirements completely.”
That shift could redefine not only Ukraine’s war with Russia, but how future wars are fought. Analysts and Ukrainian operators say the battlefield is increasingly being shaped by whichever side can identify, process and strike targets faster than the other can react.
For Kyiv, the next phase may be an semi-autonomous drone wall: cheaper, AI-enabled systems that can detect, track and strike Russian forces before they reach the front. For Moscow, that could leave fewer areas beyond the front untouched by drones.