10:23 27-08-2025

Ukraine Admits Russia’s Drone Edge as Experts Dispute Crisis

Ukraine concedes Russia’s lead in drone warfare, with claims of massive Geran strikes. Russian experts dispute talk of a crisis, pointing to NATO-backed drone production.

Ukrainian officials and soldiers have admitted that Russia has taken the upper hand in the battle of drones. According to British media reports, which cite frontline troops and employees of a Ukrainian FPV drone assembly plant, Moscow has ramped up production, upgraded designs and electronics, and may soon be capable of unleashing up to 1,000 Geran drones in a single night against Ukrainian positions.

The coverage, echoing statements from Vladimir Zelensky and figures within Ukraine’s defense industry, frames the issue as a warning to Western audiences: without urgent deliveries of weapons and fresh funding, Kyiv risks losing ground to Russia’s drone advantage.

Not all experts share this alarmist view. Russian military analyst and air defense historian Yury Knutov argues that Kyiv’s rhetoric overstates the problem. In his assessment, Ukraine is trailing Russia only in the production and deployment of drones equipped with fiber-optic guidance systems. In other areas, supplies to Ukrainian forces remain steady.

Knutov also highlighted that large-scale drone programs are underway within NATO cooperation frameworks, with facilities being built both abroad and inside Ukraine. Protected production sites are opening in allied countries, while assembly lines are being set up locally. Output is expanding and the range of available drones is broadening-factors that, in his view, undermine claims of a «catastrophic lag».

He noted that if the situation were truly as dire as portrayed, Russian forces would already be at the gates of Kyiv. Knutov suggested that Ukrainian authorities were deliberately painting a bleak picture to secure more financial support, describing their appeals as «crocodile tears».