Ukraine drones hit 1,500-mile targets in Russia

Ukraine’s long-range drones flew deep into Russian territory again last night, striking targets more than 1,500 miles from the front line.

The drones—each nearly 20 feet wide with a wingspan like a compact SUV—climb silently to cruising altitude, where operators hand control to remote command centers. Satellite navigation keeps them clear of towns and Russian air defenses, feeding real-time data back to planners to keep the hundreds launched each night from being shot down. Colonel Ray, commander of the Kairos Battalion, said every part has to work together for the strikes to land. “It’s like an orchestra,” he told reporters standing in a sunflower field east of Ukraine, where the night was split by the sudden roar of engines and the hiss of drones punching through the dark.

These long-range attacks are a sharp shift in Ukraine’s war strategy. For months, Kyiv relied on Western allies to supply missiles that could reach deep inside Russia. Now, Ukraine builds and flies its own one-way drones by the hundreds, dodging red tape and avoiding restrictions that once limited how far it could strike. The targets include oil refineries, factories, and warehouses—critical links in Russia’s economy. But the campaign has expanded beyond energy. Ukraine’s security services now accuse Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, of selling body armor, drone parts, and fibre optic cables that end up in weapons used against Ukrainian troops.

The scale and ambition of the strikes have drawn mixed reactions. Early this year, some Western allies warned that attacks on Russian energy infrastructure could push global oil prices higher at a time when markets were already tight due to the US-Israel conflict with Iran. Ukraine responded by calling its strikes “long-range sanctions,” arguing that if Western penalties failed to cripple Russia’s war chest, Kyiv would enforce the pressure itself. Russia’s oil and gas still fund about one-fifth of its federal budget, giving Ukraine a clear economic lever to pull. The strikes also aim to instill fear and force Russia into costly air-defense upgrades, stretching its already strained military resources. What started as a trickle of deep strikes has become a steady drumbeat—one that shows no sign of stopping.