Ukraine expands long-range drone campaign against Russian oil targets
NPR reported from a Ukrainian drone unit carrying out strikes hundreds of miles inside Russia and Russian-occupied territory.
By Sofia Marchetti · World Affairs Correspondent
3 min read
Ukraine is using long-range drones to strike oil infrastructure and military logistics far inside Russia, NPR reported, extending Kyiv’s reach as the war grinds through its fifth year. The campaign gives Ukraine a way to hit Russian supply lines and energy facilities despite shortages of cruise and ballistic missiles, according to Ukrainian officers and analysts cited by NPR.
NPR reported that it recently spent time with the First Separate Center of Unmanned Systems, a secretive Ukrainian military strike team operating from an undisclosed field in eastern Ukraine. At the request of Ukraine’s military, NPR identified soldiers by their callsigns because of security concerns.
The unit was launching drones made by Fire Point, a Ukrainian defense technology company, NPR reported. The aircraft can travel between 800 and 1,200 miles, according to NPR, and have been used in attacks on Russian oil refineries and depots, including targets in Moscow and Siberia.
Ukraine launched its largest drone attack yet on Moscow on June 18 and struck an oil refinery, NPR reported. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said several drones reached the Gazprom Neft refinery on the city’s southeastern edge, according to AFP, while Ukrainian media reported residents described “oil rain” after smoke rose from the area.
Ukrainian drones have also hit targets in Russian-occupied Crimea, which Russia seized and annexed in 2014, NPR reported. Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov told a Ukrainian journalist that drones were isolating Crimea and said the peninsula could soon become “an island,” according to NPR.
George Barros of the Institute for the Study of War told NPR that Ukraine can now send hundreds of long-range strike vehicles into Russia on a near-daily basis, causing damage and unsettling the Kremlin. He described the campaign as part of Ukraine’s strategy to defend itself and seek an end to the war on terms favorable to Kyiv.
The commander of the unit, who uses the callsign Charlie, told NPR that Ukraine’s drone systems have become more effective since he began leading the team three years ago. He said Ukraine lacks cruise and ballistic missiles, but its drones have affected battlefield operations and “hit our enemy hard.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on June 10 that Ukrainian long-range drones had struck more than 356,000 Russian targets over the previous year, NPR reported. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy’s Ukraine Support Tracker found that direct U.S. aid fell by 99% under the Trump administration, according to NPR.
NPR described the unit preparing launch pads at night, checking flight plans on a laptop and using a motorcycle engine to help generate takeoff speed. A soldier using the callsign Push told NPR he launches drones almost every night.
Charlie told NPR his team helped carry out a strike on an oil refinery near Moscow last month. He said the unit felt “a sense of justice” because residents of Russia’s capital experienced what Ukrainian cities face daily.
Russia intercepts most Ukrainian long-range drones, but some have reached industrial plants, military facilities, logistics routes and oil infrastructure, NPR reported. The Kremlin denies the strikes have had economic effects, though The Moscow Times has reported lower refinery output and fuel rationing in Moscow, northern Russia and parts of Russian-occupied Ukraine.
After completing the launches in about two hours, the team left quickly, NPR reported. Charlie said staying was too dangerous, and another soldier, Uki, said Russian forces were searching for the unit because its members are targets.
This story draws on original reporting from NPR.