Will Tizard
Ukraine's deep-strike drone campaign targeting Russia's oil and gas production facilities has already cost its enemy 10 percent of its refining capacity, according to industry experts -- and Kyiv is committed to stepping things up.
"Ten percent, it's not an astonishing number," says Tatiana Mitrova of Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy. "But it is still something that starts to be felt with the Russian domestic fuel crisis, with reduced oil refined products exports, and general tension inside the Russian oil sector."
Ukraine has invested heavily in new long-distance drone technology, putting out weapons such as the Lyutiy drone, which is capable of delivering explosives up to 2,000 kilometers from its secret launch site.
But Ukrainian drone units have also gained expertise at swarming targets with dozens of cheaper first-person-view (FPV) drones.
The technology advances are currently allowing Kyiv to hit key Russian oil and gas resources on an almost daily basis.
It has also committed to hitting the same refineries repeatedly, an essential strategy, says Mitrova, as Russia scrambles to rebuild and repair damage.
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