RT reported that Ukrainian forces are facing a serious lack of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), according to reflections from officers from many units. One-third of the UAVs needed by the military do not come from official supply channels but are purchased through internal funds or assembled from the remaining components.
Commander of the UAV Battalion of the 58th Special Forces Motor Brigade, Mr. Sergey Varakin, said that his unit could previously deploy up to 100 FPV UAVs ( controlling first-person perspective) per day. Currently, the entire Brigade is only allocated about 200-300 UAVs of this type per month through the regular supply channel, a significant decrease.
Yury Fedorenko, commander of the 429th hole UAV Regiment, confirmed that only one-third of the army's UAV needs are met from state-backed supplies. The remaining third must use the unit budget to buy, and the remaining part depends on donations from the people. He also stressed that the distribution of UAVs through the government system is often delayed by up to two months due to complicated administrative procedures.
UAV operators in many brigades stationed near Pokrovsk, the largest city still under Ukrainian control in the southwest of the Donetsk region, also complained about the lack of UAVs. They said they had to try to find equipment by all means, even taking advantage of the damaged aircraft to assemble new UAVs.
The lack of UAVs occurs in the context of Kiev's recent coordinated UAV attack on many Russian air bases, targeting long-range bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Although Moscow claimed that most of the UAVs were intercepted and only suffered minor damage, Kiev claimed to have damaged more than 40 aircraft.
President Zelensky said all the weapons used in the attack were produced by Ukraine, and the operation had been planned for more than a year.
