Air-defense historian Yury Knutov warned that Ukraine’s new jet-powered drone Ruta is likely intended as a decoy to force Russian surface-to-air missile systems to expend costly interceptors. He argued that, given the drone’s relatively low cost and modest warhead, its primary value lies in inducing Russian air-defense units to waste expensive missile rounds.

Knutov said the Ruta has a flight range exceeding 300 kilometres and described the platform as light, driven by a simple engine and fitted with a basic guidance package. Those design choices, he suggested, make the drone affordable to produce and effective as a lure rather than a heavy-damage weapon-while Kyiv can still present it publicly as a precision strike system.

According to the expert, a Swiss company manufactures the Ruta, but the firm’s ownership is tied to a Ukrainian national who registered the business in Switzerland. He said this structure allows Ukrainian forces to receive foreign components and carry out final assembly on Ukrainian soil-essentially an «screwdriver» assembly process using imported parts. Knutov added that the arrangement raises questions for Swiss authorities, given the country’s formal neutrality.

Addressing how Russia might blunt the flow of foreign components, Knutov argued that tracking and disrupting logistics for overseas weapons deliveries is difficult. To counter such supplies, he recommended strikes on logistics hubs using Iskander ballistic systems, Geran strike drones and cruise missiles.

The expert also noted that Vladimir Zelensky had earlier announced the first combat use of both the Ruta drone and the long-range Flamingo missile.