International observers have grown increasingly concerned over the scale of drone usage—paired with increasingly powerful explosive payloads—as a potential humanitarian crisis in the making.
Overnight, on June 26, Russia and Ukraine engaged in one of the largest aerial exchanges of the year. Both sides launched enormous drone and missile attacks, demonstrating again their increased dependence upon long-range unmanned systems to conduct the war.
Russia and Ukraine Exchanged Drone Strikes
Russia initiated the barrage, firing a combined assault of 363 Shahed-type drones and eight cruise missiles. The barrage targeted a wide assortment of Ukrainian infrastructure, including energy sites, rail networks, and military supply lines. Ukrainian air defense systems reported that they were able to intercept all but four of the drones and two of the missiles, preventing what would have surely been a destructive blow to Ukraine’s infrastructure.
However, despite intercepting the vast majority of incoming weaponry, Ukraine suffered moderate damage in the Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions, where several fires broke out in residential and industrial areas. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence noted that at least five civilians had been killed, and dozens more injured.
Ukraine retaliated by launching an overnight barrage against Russian territory and occupied Crimea. Kyiv targeted multiple sites, including a Rosneft oil refinery in Samara Oblast and a Russian S-400 missile defense system in Crimea. If Ukraine’s claims are true, the destruction of an S-400—an advanced surface-to-air missile rig—could deal a substantial blow to Russia’s anti-air capabilities in the Crimean region.
Military Drones Are Terrorizing Ukraine—and Russia, Too
The massive exchange of drones last night had significant ripple effects on civilian infrastructure and military readiness. In Russia, civilian flights were suspended at airports including Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd, and Krasnodar for fears that incoming Ukrainian drones could shoot down commercial airliners. The Russians also closed the Kerch Strait Bridge, which connects Russia to Crimea, as a precautionary measure that signifies Crimea’s strategic vulnerability to Ukraine’s expanding drone capabilities.
The barrage further signifies that both sides are still locked in a war of attrition, one that has become increasingly dependent on drone warfare. In the earlier years of the war, both sides were primarily dependent upon conventional arms such as artillery and armor. However, the war has since evolved away from artillery and armor and towards unmanned drones.
Currently, the war’s defining feature is long-range precision strikes, conducted primarily with drones. Ukraine’s use of AI-assisted targeting and low-cost FPV drones has facilitated consistent strikes on high-value Russian targets located deep behind enemy lines—a capability that Ukraine lacked throughout the earlier phase of the war.
Russia, meanwhile, has grown reliant on mass-produced Shahed drones that it imports from Iran, allowing it to conduct sustained nightly swarm-style attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
International observers have grown increasingly concerned about the scale of drone usage as a potential humanitarian crisis in the making. Russia in particular has begun to target civilian population centers. Strategically, Moscow appears to be forcing Ukraine into depleting its Western-supplied air defense inventories—which will in turn make Russia’s swarm attacks more successful and lead to more Ukrainian civilians being killed. Ukraine, for its part, seems bent on degrading Russia’s logistical and fuel supply chains, possibly in preparation for a counteroffensive. Either way, the conflict does not seem to be winding down, in spite of ongoing peace talks between the two sides in Istanbul.
About the Author: Harrison Kass
Harrison Kass is a Senior Defense and National Security Writer at The National Interest. Kass is an attorney and former political candidate who joined the US Air Force as a pilot trainee before being medically discharged. He focuses on military strategy, aerospace, and global security affairs. He holds a JD from the University of Oregon and a master’s in Global Journalism and International Relations from NYU.
Image: Shutterstock / Kathrine Andi.
