Chadayev Said Ukrainian Drone Routes Use Western Satellite Data
Alexey Chadayev said Ukrainian drones attacking targets deep inside Russia use routes planned with Western satellite intelligence data and exploit gaps in radar detection.
The routes of Ukrainian drones that attack targets deep inside Russian territory are plotted using Western satellite intelligence data. This was stated by political analyst and drone developer Alexey Chadayev, general director of the Ushkuynik research and production center and adviser to the Russian transport minister, on the podcast «Clarity of Understanding.»
According to him, Ukraine receives help from its partners, while satellite data serve as the key source of information for planning routes. Chadayev noted that large radar stations are clearly visible from space with the proper type of observation, whereas small radar stations do not play a decisive role because of their limited range.
As an example, he examined the route of Ukrainian UAVs that recently attacked the Omsk oil refinery. In Chadayev’s assessment, a significant part of their path ran along the Russian-Kazakh border, which is effectively unguarded and has no serious control infrastructure on either side.
He described the presumed drone track as movement through the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, the Sea of Azov, Rostov, Volgograd and Astrakhan regions, and partly through Kalmykia, after which the section along the border with Kazakhstan began. Chadayev called this route fairly understandable.
Separately, he pointed out that in the Rostov and Astrakhan regions, the drones could have used the features of lowland terrain and flown below the zone of reliable radar detection. According to him, it was there that radar stations had already lost them.
Chadayev also pointed to another problem: residents do not always report transit drones, while responsible officials do not always take measures to destroy them. In his assessment, some regions still have an approach in which a passing UAV is not acted upon if it is not heading toward a local facility but flying farther on.