Ukraine is completely rewriting the rules of modern warfare. From airlifting explosive ground robots (UGVs) straight into enemy bunkers to launching massive 350-drone deep strikes across Russia, Ukrainian tech is outpacing Moscow on every front. With plans to field over 50,000 ground drones in 2026, Ukraine holds a decisive lead in FPV, mid-range, long-range, and maritime systems.
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00:00Drones are everything in the war in Ukraine. That's been clear for years now, in a war that
00:05has been increasingly defined by which nation is able to create the best drone technology.
00:10Russia used to have the advantage in volume. That's gone. Russia never had the advantage in
00:16tech. Ukraine was always the innovator. And now, after four and a half years of fighting,
00:21one thing has become abundantly clear. There is a master and a loser in the drone war.
00:26Russia is the loser. And if you have any doubts about that, or somehow still think that Russia
00:31is winning the drone war, then just watch what Ukraine is doing to them. On July 19th,
00:37an interesting clip surfaced on X, shared by Jay and Keeve. The video shows us an interesting
00:42evolution in Ukraine's drone-based warfare that nobody expected to see. What that evolution is
00:48may not be clear on a first viewing. We see a Ukrainian drone carrying something on the end
00:53of a long wire. Could it be a bomb? A supply package? Neither would be war-changing, even if
00:58it's strange to see one of these things being dangled so far below a drone. It turns out it's
01:03neither. What dangles on the end of the wire is a Ukrainian ground robot, or UGV, that has been
01:08hoisted into the air by Ukraine's drone and is being carried, presumably to wherever Ukraine needs
01:13it to be to conduct an attack or serve a logistical purpose. In just eight seconds of footage, we have
01:18witnessed true Ukrainian mastery at play. A heavy bomber drone has airlifted what Euromiden
01:24press calls an explosive ground robot off the ground. The implications are massive. Bomber
01:30drones do what they say on the tin, drop bombs onto Russian positions. Explosive UGVs are a different
01:35prospect. They can still deliver as much, if not more, firepower than the bombs that are traditionally
01:40dropped, but they work differently. A UGV can be dropped onto the ground and then guided toward the
01:46intended target. A bomb that would have bounced off the hard surface of a Russian bunker has been
01:50replaced by a kamikaze UGV that can drive right into that bunker and blow it up from the inside.
01:56And here's what Putin's commanders don't want to think about as they try to come up with new ways
02:01to claim that Russia is somehow winning this war. If Ukraine can pull off this type of UGV operation
02:06once, it can do it again and again. Soon, the sight of explosive UGVs being carried over the
02:11battlefield, perhaps flanked by FPV drones that take aim at any Russian who emerges from cover
02:16to try to take the UGV down, will be commonplace all over Ukraine. And though we don't know the
02:22ultimate fate of the UGV in the footage, it being an explosive ground robot allows us to suggest
02:27what might have happened next. A Russian target was penetrated, then destroyed.
02:32There is precedent for Ukraine's use of UGVs in an attacking capacity. Ukraine hasn't always been
02:37subtle about it either. Back in January, soldiers from the country's 3rd Army Corps loaded a UGV with
02:4312 mines, which the UGV carried over a distance of 20 kilometers before blowing up a Russian bunker.
02:49UGV combat operations have gotten a lot more sophisticated since then. In April, we saw Ukraine
02:54use ground robots to capture a Russian position, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed as a
02:59world-first operation. Another world-first was pulled off in July when Ukraine used a maritime drone
03:05to transport a UGV onto the Kinburn Spit, leading to the UGV opening fire on a Russian position.
03:11And on July 17, Forbes reported that Ukraine had pulled off another capture of a Russian
03:16infiltration site, using a combination of drones and robots to take out a Russian grouping near
03:21Dobropylia. The combat possibilities for this evolution in Ukraine's drone strategy are immense.
03:27Imagine a small fleet of UAVs, each carrying robots to serve different purposes. The Kamikaze UGVs
03:33are dropped first. Blanked by FPV drones, they roll into Russian positions and detonate. Behind
03:38them are other combat UGVs, armed with heavy machine guns that fire on the ruined positions
03:42and blare messages from loudspeakers, telling the occupiers that they need to surrender or die.
03:47If needed, other ground robots carrying supplies can be flown into the fray to support Ukrainian troops
03:53on the ground. All of this is possible now that Ukraine seems to have figured out how to airlift its
03:57UGVs. This is true mastery. Ukraine has made drone warfare an art form.
04:03However, what we see here is just a microcosm of a reality that Russia has been forced to face
04:07for far too long now. Both sides have drones, but when it comes to who is best at using them
04:12and who is able to innovate strategies that the other side simply never sees coming,
04:17Ukraine comes out on top every single time. And what we're seeing on the ground and in the air
04:22delivers the same message over and over. Anybody who thinks Russia is winning the drone race is
04:28wrong. Ukraine is on top and it has been for most of 2026. Let's stick with the UGVs for a
04:33moment.
04:34The evolution of UGVs, both in terms of their design and their myriad uses in the Ukraine war,
04:39has been remarkable. This technology used to be almost purely logistical. Many ground robots still
04:44serve this type of purpose as they make supply runs along the front in place of soldiers and are even
04:49used to evacuate troops, driving them back to safety behind the front lines. However,
04:54we have also seen UGVs increasingly used in a combat capacity. UGVs are now being loaded with machine
04:59guns, allowing them to fire on positions and bombs that they can use to blow those positions sky high.
05:04Some UGVs even have thermal night vision, allowing for operations in the dark, Euromiden press reports.
05:10The kamikaze UGVs that we're now seeing emerge on the battlefield can even do something that Ukraine's
05:15UAVs can't do. Drive straight into an open bunker or up to a piece of equipment and detonate.
05:21Ukraine recognizes that UGVs are a potential game-changer and it's investing heavily in
05:26getting as many of them onto the battlefield as possible. RBC Ukraine reports that Ukraine built
05:3125,000 UGVs during the first half of 2026. Assuming the same production schedule for the
05:37second half of the year, and there's every chance that Ukraine will try to build even more,
05:41that will mean 50,000 UGVs built and on the battlefield by the end of the year.
05:46Ukraine's commanders have taken to calling these ground robots the New Cavalry,
05:50because they can complete missions that would have previously required risking Ukrainian lives.
05:54And for a little extra context, Ukraine built 15,000 UGVs in 2025. The 2026 numbers could end up
06:02being more than three times higher. Beyond building them, Ukraine is using UGVs, a lot. In June,
06:08these ground robots combined to carry out a record-breaking 16,676 missions, and they surpassed
06:1465,000 missions in total by the end of the month. We've seen the number of monthly missions UGVs
06:20complete more than double from the 7,495 in January to what we see today, which is simply remarkable.
06:26This technology barely even existed a couple of years ago. Now, Ukraine has not only mastered it,
06:31but it's making its UGV advantage pay on the battlefield. Russia is trying to keep up, of course.
06:36That's the point. Ukraine is the innovator and Russia is the copycat.
06:39A May 1st Pravda report says that Russia now has at least 20 different types of UGV of its own.
06:45However, Russia hasn't deployed robots like these at anywhere near the scale that Ukraine has,
06:49and it's certainly not using them to capture positions or airlifting them onto the field using
06:53drones. That's all Ukrainian innovation. Plus, Russia faces the problem of sanctions,
06:58as 10 of the 20 identified companies making Russian ground drones are under US sanctions,
07:03with several also being under Ukrainian and European Union sanctions. More sanctions pressure
07:08placed on the manufacturers of Russian ground robots would help Ukraine extend an already healthy lead
07:13into an unbeatable one. But enough about UGVs. As important as they are, we told you that Ukraine
07:18has become the master across the entire drone war, not just one aspect of it. We weren't lying.
07:23Another area where Ukraine has leapt ahead is in long-range strikes, and a recent attack carried out
07:28by Ukraine shows us plenty. We take you to a massive strike that Ukraine conducted overnight
07:45leading into July 21st. Ukraine chose that date to send around 350 strike drones into Russia and
07:51the occupied territories, including carrying out several strikes in the Black Sea. Fires broke out
07:56all over. Occupied Mariupol was struck hard, leading to smoke rising over the city. Ukraine likely hit
08:03a fuel or oil depot there. A logistics center in Crimea was taken out, as were some large industrial
08:08sites in Lipetsk, including one that was either near or is a steel plant that is responsible for
08:13producing about 20% of Russia's steel and lipids. More ships were struck in the Black Sea and the Sea
08:19of
08:19Azov. And Ukraine also destroyed radars, logistical depots, and more in the occupied regions of Donetsk,
08:25Luhansk, and Zaporizhia. Oh, and there was also a massive strike against the Kalino Air Base in
08:31Russia's Kursk region, which destroyed an Su-24 fighter jet and a Pantsir S-1 air defense system.
08:37All of this is very impressive, of course, but it's not the real story when it comes to Ukraine's deep
08:42strikes. What was most remarkable about this day of drone destruction is that Russia also launched
08:46its own long-range attack during the same period, and Russia lost badly. By the end of the strikes,
08:52Ukraine had unleashed around six times the number of long-range drones that Russia had.
08:56Russia only managed 58 drones and missiles in the face of Ukraine's long-range blitz.
09:02That matters in the context of Ukraine's growing drone mastery for a simple reason.
09:07One of the only drone advantages that Russia had has slipped away. For years,
09:11Russia has been able to launch much larger swarms of long-range drones than Ukraine could manage in
09:15response. Everything has changed in 2026. Ukraine has now reached parity, at the very least,
09:21on the deep-strike front. As we saw on July 21st, it's often launching more long-range drones than
09:26Russia. This 6-1 strike isn't an isolated incident. Ukraine coming out on top in the
09:31deep-strike game is becoming a regular occurrence. A daily one, in fact. Ukraine sending 350 drones
09:37into Russia in the occupied territories isn't some sort of new record, not even close. As President
09:42Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed in June, 300-350 strike drones are now the average that Ukraine launches
09:48every single day, as the nation has massively ramped up its deep-strike campaign to destroy
09:53Russian oil, cripple military bases, and break the Russian war machine from the inside. Now,
09:58we don't want to give the impression that Ukraine always launches more drones than Russia.
10:01That's why we mentioned parity. Some days Russia launches more, other days it's Ukraine. But the
10:06fact that Ukraine has reached this volume at all, especially when combined with the precise nature
10:11of its strikes compared to Russia simply trying to hit anything, and often targeting cities,
10:16means that Ukraine is coming out on top. Russia should have seen this turnaround coming from the
10:20start of the year. The first four days of 2026 saw Ukraine launch more drones at Russia than Russia
10:26launched at Ukraine. Ukraine has also been busy breaking long-range records. On the night of June
10:3117th and into June 18th, Russia's air defenses claimed to have shot down 992 of Ukraine's drones
10:37during an overnight attack. That came on the back of a June 6th strike where Russia claimed to have shot
10:42911 drones. These numbers are insane. Ukraine was never supposed to reach them, but it has,
10:48and we're starting to see how Ukraine pulling ahead on the long-range front is forcing Russia
10:52to change its military calculus. A couple of years ago, Russia could feel relatively safe,
10:57hundreds of kilometers behind the front. Ukraine couldn't strike targets inside Russia,
11:01at least not with any sort of regularity. But again, everything has changed. Ukraine's drones can
11:06now strike in greater volume, accurately, and at previously unthinkable ranges. In fact,
11:11range is another key point. July 7th saw Ukraine conduct a drone attack against the Omsk refinery.
11:17To do that, Ukraine's drones had to travel at least 2,500 kilometers, and that sort of range tells
11:23Russia that nothing it tries to hide away on its own territory is safe anymore. Russia is finding
11:28itself unable to intercept these attacks. Sure, the defense ministry tends to claim perfect
11:33interception records, but the same ministry will also tell you that it's drone debris that just so
11:37happens to be scoring direct hits on the targets that Ukraine wanted to strike, and not the drones
11:42themselves. When it comes to calculus, Russia has to either accept the fact that everything within at
11:47least a 2,500 kilometer range of Ukraine is now a target, or it has to invest heavily in new
11:52defenses
11:52to protect anything behind the front. And that investment won't keep pace. It's not exactly easy
11:57to build new air defenses when you're dealing with sanctions and a cash crunch following four years of
12:02immense military spending. So, Ukraine leads Russia on ground drones, and it's starting to pull ahead
12:07on the long-range front. Speaking of the front, we're seeing something similar there. According to
12:11the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Oleksandr Siersky, Ukraine has a 1.5 to
12:161 FPV drone advantage over Russia across most of the front line. That interesting tidbit of news came at the
12:22same time that he announced how Ukraine's drone operators had carried out strikes against 180,000
12:27verified targets in May alone. The sheer scale of this strike ratio is immense, and the fact that
12:33Ukraine now holds the FPV lead shows us how replacing soldiers with drones has become a key
12:38part of its strategy. We see that in the production numbers too. In July, Ukraine confirmed that it will
12:43build around 10 million drones in 2026, and that it has the production capacity needed to double that
12:49number if it gets the funding required to do so. That funding is coming. Ukraine has signed a huge
12:541.1 billion dollar drone deal with the European Union, which goes on to the pile of other drone
12:59deals that it's been signing with individual nations. A 20-country cooperation model is also
13:04being built for drone production, Zelensky says, which will help Ukraine pull even further ahead.
13:09Ukraine has also pulled ahead on the interceptor drone front. While Russia still primarily relies on
13:13air defense systems that were designed to tackle missiles and aircraft to take down drones,
13:17Ukraine has built a new generation of interceptor drones. Cost and effectiveness are key here.
13:22Interceptors can take out Shahid-type attack drones, costing around $50,000 each, for a fraction of
13:28the cost. For instance, a single Sting interceptor costs Ukraine $2,500 to build. What we have here
13:35is Ukraine building more and better drones for its frontline forces while it invests intelligently
13:39into cheap drones in the rear that mitigate the threat posed by Russia's long-range campaign.
13:44Again, it's that word, innovation. Ukraine is innovative, Russia isn't. That's why one is the
13:49master of drone warfare and the other is a loser who can do little more than copy.
13:53And before we wrap up, we have one more aspect of the drone war to cover. Mid-range strikes.
13:582026 has seen the rise of a new generation of mid-range strike drones that allows Ukraine to
14:02carry out attacks in the occupied regions that it couldn't carry out before. FPV drones couldn't
14:07travel far enough and long-range drones were needed to attack Russia. What Ukraine now has are drones that
14:13can strike in the 50 to 200-kilometer range, which it can use to wreck Russian logistics and destroy
14:18key assets such as command posts, ammo depots, and troop gathering points. Russia's supply routes in
14:24the near-rear have now become a hunting ground for these mid-range strike drones, many of which are
14:29infused with artificial intelligence that allows them to automatically detect and track targets
14:34before they get the okay to strike. That's another arena where Ukraine comes out on top. Both sides use
14:39AI, but Ukraine does so much more effectively. Ukraine has been using these drones to attack
14:43Russian convoys, be they of armored vehicles or fuel and supply trucks attempting to transport
14:48their cargo to the front. Ukraine has announced a $113 million logistics lockdown campaign to support
14:54these efforts, and Russian vehicles are burning by the hundreds. Crimea has felt the worst of the
14:58impact. Increasingly isolated, the peninsula is experiencing massive fuel shortages and constant
15:04blackouts. The latter caused by mid-range strikes against power stations and substations. On the
15:10front, soldiers who are relying on fuel, ammunition, food and supplies constantly find that none arrives,
15:16as yet another truck gets blown up, or a bridge is collapsed, a logistics hub is ruined, or a road
15:21is reduced to rubble. Alone, these strikes would still be important, but when combined with Ukraine's
15:26FPV advantage on the front, the increasing scale of Ukraine's deep strikes, thousands of ground robots
15:32saving lives and carrying out combat missions, and the innovative mindset that has led to Ukraine
15:36coming up with a new way to bring those ground robots into battle, you get a recipe for a Russian
15:41disaster. Russia thought it was good at war, so good that it could use Soviet-era tactics to destroy
15:46Ukraine. When that failed and the stream of Western support allowed Ukraine to survive the early months
15:51and years of the invasion, the momentum of the war started to shift. Now we see the turnaround.
15:56Russia is playing catch-up while still relying on strategies that involve sacrificing
16:00soldiers to make progress. Ukraine builds more and better drones, and it's transformed the face of
16:05war in the process. Ukraine is the master of the universe of drones, and we haven't even covered one
16:10of the key types of drones that has given the nation that distinction, maritime drones. Yes,
16:15Ukraine leads the way in this area of drone warfare too, and if you need any proof of that,
16:19we have the perfect video waiting in the wings. Ukraine has unleashed Moby Dick, which is a new type
16:24of maritime drone platform with a huge range, multiple variants, and enough stopping power for
16:29almost any type of naval mission. Find out more by watching our analysis. But before you do, remember
16:34to subscribe to The Military Show. We publish videos like this daily and we'd love to have you along for
16:39the ride, and thank you for watching.
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