On Thursday and Friday, Ukraine carried out several significant drone attacks on the Russian side.
Head teacher of air warfare at the National Defense University Tomi Lyytinen estimates that Ukraine’s goal is to influence Russia’s decision-making and especially the nation’s morale. This has also been successful.
– The war is brought to the people’s consciousness and at the same time the weaknesses of Russia’s military defense are shown, Tomi Lyytinen says.
The drone strikes carried out on Thursday morning were particularly significant. Russia announced that it had shot down the drones near St. Petersburg and Moscow. In St. Petersburg, the target of the drone was an oil terminal. The target of the drone attack on Bryansk on Friday was also an oil terminal.
– The targets of the attacks in Moscow and St. Petersburg are far away. The strikes speak of Ukraine’s military prowess.
Did the drones fly more than a thousand kilometers?
It is also significant that the information about attacks on major cities immediately spreads to the global media and thus to everyone’s consciousness.
– It seems that Ukraine is really capable of striking military targets in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Of course, the attacks have been isolated and Russia has been able to repel them to a large extent.
According to Tomi Lyytinen, Ukraine only attacks high-priority targets.
– You just can’t do such attacks every day or even every week. They must be planned carefully and intelligence gathered.
There is no complete certainty about where the drones that hit St. Petersburg and Moscow came from. Ukraine claims that they were sent from the Ukrainian side.
– Then they would have flown more than a thousand kilometers. It is precise work that control can be circumvented.
So it could be that the drones were shot into the air by a group operating in Russia. That has yet to be confirmed.
An oil terminal is also a target in Bryansk
On Friday, a Ukrainian drone strike set oil terminal tanks on fire in southwestern Russia. of the governor of the Bryansk region Alexander Bogomazin according to the tanks ignited when Russia shot down a Ukrainian drone near the city of Klintsy.
The explosive carried by the drone had time to fall and ignite a massive fire in four oil warehouses of the oil company Rosneft. The containers that caught fire have a total capacity of 6,000 cubic meters.
A source in Ukraine’s security service later confirmed the drone strike to the AFP news agency. Klintsy is located about 60 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
According to Bogomaz, the Russian air defense also shot down two other drones in the Bryansk region on Friday.
According to Tomi Lyytinen, the head teacher of air warfare, the Bryansk attack does not have a turning point in terms of the war, because Russia’s resources are so large.
– There should be dozens and more of these attacks in order for them to be relevant in terms of the war.
Drone production is being tightened
President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has said that Ukraine will strike targets located in Russia more forcefully this year than before.
Ukraine’s problem has been the insufficiency of drone production, but the country is striving to strongly increase the production of long-range drones.
In the past, Ukraine has used modified Soviet-era and Chinese drones. Last year, the Ukrainian army developed a long-range drone, the kind that was reportedly used in the attack on Moscow last August.
At that time, for example, the offices of the Russian Ministry of Economy were damaged. The Bober drone, developed in part with crowdfunding, is said to have a range of 800 kilometers.
In Ukraine, several startup companies also manufacture drones for the country’s military.
Minister of Strategic Industry Oleksandr Kamyshin said in December, that Ukraine will be able to produce 11,000 long- and medium-range drones this year. At least a thousand of these would be drones with a range of more than a thousand kilometers.
Tomi Lyytinen, the head teacher of air warfare at the National Defense University, believes that Ukraine’s ability to produce drones is reasonable.
– It is not as significant as in Russia, but its importance is considerable.
According to Kamyshin, Ukraine plans to produce an additional one million small drones to be used in the front line.
According to press reports, for example A company called Terminal Autonomy has announced that it can produce 500 drones per month.