Russians accelerating creation of UAV units - Syrskyi

Russians are accelerating the creation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) units, trying to influence the course of hostilities, in particular in the southern directions, they planned to increase the number of UAV troops to 101,000 servicemen by April 1. This was announced by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi on Facebook, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"At a meeting on the development of unmanned systems, intelligence reported that this year the russians are accelerating the creation of UAV units, trying to influence the course of hostilities, in particular in the southern directions, where our enemy is losing initiative and territory. By April 1, the russian federation planned to increase the number of unmanned systems troops to 101,000 servicemen," he said.

Syrskyi noted that the war has entered a new stage, the increase in the length of the "kill zones" is a consequence of the growth of the capabilities of strike drones. To win this war of technologies, Ukraine needs to increase the pace of developing effective unmanned systems, their procurement for the army and use on the battlefield.

In general, in February, Ukrainian drones hit more than 105,200 enemy targets, a quarter of which were hit by the grouping of the Unmanned Systems Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Syrskyi noted that the Defense Forces of Ukraine continue to maintain an advantage in the use of multi-rotor FPV drones, although the russians have already acquired the ability to produce more than 19,000 FPV drones per day. Also, to counter enemy strike drones, UAV interceptor platoons are being created in the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Syrskyi previously reported that the russians reduced the use of FPV drones by 18% in February, a likely effect of the destruction of enemy UAV arsenals by the Ukrainian Defense Forces.