Recently, Ukraine has delivered a series of successful strikes on Russian airbases used for drone launches. This has forced Russia to temporarily reduce its operations, as reported by the UK Ministry of Defense in X (Twitter).
According to the summary, Ukraine has countered Russia's plans to control airspace over Ukraine, limiting Russia's ability to deploy its significant fleet of fast jets and bombers.
To compensate for this setback, Russia has increasingly relied on the widespread use of inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). These UAVs have been employed to disrupt Ukrainian air defense systems and to target military and civilian assets beyond the reach of Ukrainian artillery.
On June 21, the Ukrainian Navy and Security Service of Ukraine reported a strike on the 726th Russian training center for air defense systems at Yeysk aerodrome, Russia. This base is one of at least five from which Russia launches UAV strikes into Ukraine. The strike reportedly destroyed 120 UAVs of various types and injured 9 individuals.
According to British intelligence, in the short term, these strikes will likely disrupt Russia's ability to use UAVs to strike deep into Ukrainian territory from these locations.
"There is a real possibility that Russia will shift its UAV operations to less vulnerable bases, and thus the impact may be temporary. It is quite probable that Ukraine will capitalize on its recent successes and continue its campaign against UAVs to Russia's detriment," noted the UK Ministry of Defense.
