Units of the Ukrainian armed forces are using about 500 types of drones in the current conflict, according to Mr. Dmitry Kuzyakin - an expert on unmanned aerial vehicles, and also a designer at the Russian Integrated Unmanned Solutions Center.
Since the special military operation began, the center's experts have conducted internal research on the types of drones used by Ukrainian forces in the conflict. Statistics up to 2026 show that the enemy is using about 500 types of drones. Of which, 12% are fixed-wing, nearly 88% are multi-wheeled. Under 1% are special types such as vertical take-off/landing drones (VTOL)" - TASS quoted Mr. Kuzyakin.
The Russian expert emphasized that Ukrainian drones "include products manufactured by Ukraine and equipment assembled abroad". "Mainly from Europe and the Baltic countries," he said.
Drones can be divided into many groups: Fixed wings, multiple rotors, helicopters, VTOLs, even weather balloons. They can be classified by function such as: Attack, reconnaissance, transportation, relay and bombing. A drone belonging to any group can also perform many different roles" - he further explained.
Unmanned aerial vehicle expert Dmitry Kuzyakin added: "The second issue is the variant of each drone model. They change constantly. Right in a production batch, a drone model can be significantly improved. This makes classification and statistics very complicated.
Mr. Kuzyakin also noted that the number of foreign drone models used by the Ukrainian army is "not large and mainly limited to fixed-wing drone lines, serving reconnaissance and relays".
In terms of the number of designs, drones produced abroad account for less than 2%. This reflects two points: First, foreign manufacturers do not provide a diverse product portfolio, but often only choose one design and provide that design, not expanding much.
Second, foreign manufacturers lack experience in fields such as offensive weapons, multirotor drones, FPV drones... They also do not participate in the field of ammunition and weapons, which limits the diversity of drone models" - Russian experts said.
