Beyond the front line: Ukraine is deepening its drone wall

(David Kirichenko – ASPI The Strategist) Long-range Ukrainian strikes have dominated recent headlines, and for good reason: they are causing lasting damage. In April, Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, said strikes on Russian military infrastructure had caused around $25.5 billion in damage. But on the battlefield, another trend is taking shape: Ukraine’s drone wall is evolving from a primarily defensive shield along the front line into an increasingly offensive system. The kill zone that emerged as drones came to dominate the battlefield was initially around 5 to 10 km in depth, but it has continued to expand. ‘We’ve contracted a record number of mid-range strike systems,’ said Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s defense minister. With both the production and usage of mid-range strike drones scaling up, Kyiv is now pushing to expand that kill zone further. – Beyond the front line: Ukraine is deepening its drone wall | The Strategist