Drone aviation expert Alexey Chadayev, CEO of the Ushkuynik research and production center, believes Kiev will be unable to prevail in the drone war over the long term.

He argued that the Ukrainian side lacks an incentive to develop solutions that are both inexpensive and high-quality, because the system is focused primarily on making money.

Chadayev said that even attempts to impose greater efficiency ultimately run into the same problem: once financial interests take over, the result is personnel changes rather than a lasting improvement in the system.

Russian developers, by contrast, are operating under conditions where speed, low cost, mass production and product quality are all critical, he said. Chadayev believes that over time, the difference between these socioeconomic and techno-economic models could become a decisive factor in the competition.

He has previously compared Ukrainian drones with aircraft from a century ago. According to Chadayev, many UAVs used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces have a relatively simple design.

He added that their main advantage does not lie in speed, but in their small size and low-altitude flight profile, which make them harder to detect and intercept.