(Tribune News Service) — Russia is stepping up drone production to increase massive daily attacks on Ukrainian cities as Moscow pressures Kyiv to concede to peace terms.

The Kremlin unleashed deadly destruction in the capital Kyiv and the Black Sea city of Odesa overnight, firing 315 drones and seven missiles, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That followed a barrage of a record 479 drones the previous night, which itself surpassed the high set on June 1.

Moscow has escalated drone attacks this year with the scale of the strikes surging from a daily record of 267 UAVs in February. After initially losing ground to Ukraine in the development of drones, Russia has steadily ramped up mass production of Iranian-designed Shahed UAVs and other types of unmanned aircraft, giving the Kremlin a ready weapon to step up pressure on Kyiv to accept its war demands.

In April, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered defense producers to accelerate drone output from the 1.5 million units produced last year. “These weapons are still in short supply,” he said at the time. In January, he called for Russia to “emerge as one of the global technological leaders” in drone production by 2030, in light of what he said was “the huge importance of this industry” for the country.

Moscow’s aim is to use a “punishment strategy” with inexpensive Shahed drones to force Kyiv into submission, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a recent report. Although Ukraine manages to jam or shoot down most of them, the weapons “saturate Ukrainian air defenses and erode civilian morale through persistent nightly attacks,” it said.

Ukraine estimates Russia is preparing to produce between 300 to 350 long-range drones a day and wants to raise output to 500 a day, Zelenskyy said on May 27.

Russian drone manufacturers succeeded in boosting production of long-range craft to more than 30,000 this year from 15,000 in 2024, while also producing as many as 2 million small tactical drones used against tanks and artillery, Politico reported June 5, citing Oleh Aleksandrov, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service.

Ukraine’s defense intelligence directorate estimates that half of the long-range drones produced each month are decoys, according to Forbes Ukraine. Kyiv has also accused Russia of using electronics largely sourced from China in violation of sanctions. Beijing has previously said it’s not providing weapons to either side in the war.

“Drones turned out to be a low-cost alternative to precision weaponry,” said Denis Fedutinov, a Moscow-based expert on UAVs. “This realization didn’t come immediately. However, once it became clear that drones deliver tangible results, it provided the impetus to accelerate the integration of unmanned systems of various classes into military operations.”

Growth across all categories of Russia’s drone output has been exponential, compared to the figures before 2022, Fedutinov said. “In some areas, such as loitering munitions and FPV drones, we’re talking about increases by several orders of magnitude,” he said, referencing first-person view drones controlled by an operator via video feed.

At talks in Istanbul last week, Russia laid out terms for a ceasefire that amounted to capitulation, including Kyiv handing over control of territory it still holds in four occupied regions and agreeing to neutrality and limits on its military capability and foreign weapon supplies.

The European Union on Tuesday proposed export bans aimed at depriving Russia of critical technologies and industrial goods, including restricting dual-use items used in producing drones, missiles and other weapons. “We want to make sure that Russia does not find ways to modernize its weapons with European technologies,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Brussels.

The E.U. also proposed banning the Nord Stream pipelines and cutting the Group of Seven oil price cap to $45 as part of the new sanctions package.

In addition to the Shahed drones, which Russia started to import from Iran in 2022 before starting its own production, Russia has developed a new drone using Chinese technology that can select targets using AI.

Ukrainian military intelligence on June 9 published details of the design of the new Russian V2U strike drone, which it said is used by Moscow’s forces in Ukraine’s northeast Sumy region.

Ukraine has led the way in using drones on the battlefield. It launched UAVs from within Russia to strike a series of strategic air bases on June 1, destroying bombers, in one of the most audacious aerial attacks of the war. It’s also deployed drones to devastating effect on the frontlines to prevent major Russian advances and to hit vital infrastructure deep inside Russian territory — including transportation networks and oil refineries.

“Russia has caught up and is maximizing production and use of drones, but they’re doing this in a conventional way,” said Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a defense think tank. “The Ukrainians are managing not to lag behind in the drone war by responding asymmetrically.”

With assistance from Daryna Krasnolutska.

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previous coverage

• Russia launches another large-scale drone and missile attack on Ukraine, killing 3 and wounding 13
• Ukraine says Russia launched biggest overnight drone bombardment of war
• Deadly Russian bombardment of Ukraine further dampens hopes for peace

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