Ukraine finally outshoots Russia

In March, Ukraine launched more than 7,000 cross-border attacks, surpassing the number of Russia’s launches. Serhii has been developing drones since 2022, when he realized their importance.

Satellite image shows large fire and thick smoke at the Ust-Luga oil terminal complex with several oil storage tanks burning. Photo via Getty Images (Satellite image (c) 2026 Vantor).

KYIV, Ukraine — “My friends who fought on the front lines all told the same story. A tank would come at them, lock onto them, and kill them from five kms away. They had nothing to fight back with. All they had were assault rifles. They were lucky if they had a grenade launcher,” said Serhiі Okhotnik, founder of the Hunter project, which manufactures drones and trains drone operators.

The stories motivated Serhii to make drones for the army. The main request from soldiers was always to send drones deeper into enemy territory; that’s what drove Serhii to create drones that can now fly a distance of 70 km, but the goal is always to go farther.

Extending strike range is always a top priority for drone developers, and now Ukraine’s armed forces can hit targets more than 1,000 km away — hitting oil and military infrastructure and causing billion-dollar damage for Russia.

Serhii Okhotnik with Motherland Statue in the background. Photo provided by him.

Over the past 4,5 years, Ukrainians have learned to defend themselves and strike back. Drones are everywhere: intercepting Shaheds, conducting reconnaissance, striking along the front lines, and striking hundreds of km deep into Russia — often damaging critical Russian state-level infrastructure.

However, last month Ukraine managed to do something impossible to imagine at the start of the war: outshooting Russia in cross-border strikes for the first time. In March, Ukraine launched more than 7,000 drones, targeting 1,000 km deep inside Russia. In return, Moscow sent almost 6,500 drones and 138 missiles to Ukraine.

The development of deep strikes has allowed Ukraine to wage war throughout Russia, proving that asymmetrical warfare can become an effective tool to gain a strategic advantage against a stronger enemy. If sustained, these attacks may give Ukraine leverage not only on the battlefield, but also in future negotiations, raising the question of whether mounting pressure inside Russia can force the Kremlin to reconsider its positions or make concessions.

“If I had known how much I would have to learn, how many people I would need to bring on board, and how many new developments I would have to undertake, I wouldn’t have taken that step, but at the time, it seemed like the logical thing to do,” Serhii said.

Before the war, he created his own online course on financial management and managerial accounting and taught it to others.

In mid-2022, Serhii founded a school for drone operators, as it was already clear by then that drones would help repel attacks from a safe distance.

“Back then, there were almost no Ukrainian-made drones. There were Mavics, made by the Chinese company DJI. The guys would make their own explosives, attach them to the drones, and send them toward the enemy as close as they could,” Serhii said.

Mavic drone. Photo from Novynarnia.

Later, he heard requests from the military: the drones needed to fly farther. At that time, these drones could fly about 5 km, which meant operators had to get close to the target and put themselves in danger. This led to the gradual production and development of new, more powerful models capable of flying farther and farther. Now Serhii’s drone flies 70 km.

A distance of 70 km is considered a middle strike — when a drone can fly from certain locations across the Russian border and strike the enemy’s logistics or frontline strategic targets.

Drone targeting Russian trenches. Video provided by Serhii.

The difference also lies in the targets for each range: a medium-range strike can target moving targets, such as the movement of personnel, equipment, and the bases of individual brigades. Additionally, drone control for mid-range strikes is typically conducted in real time.

When a drone crosses the 200-km mark from the front line, it is considered a deep strike; some go much farther, with the ability to cover more than 1,000 km. Such drones fly autonomously along a predefined route and coordinates. The main risk to these drones is a 50-km buffer zone teeming with Russian air defense systems as well as air defense systems near the target, according to Bohdan Dolintse, an aviation expert.

Drone Liytyi. Photo from 24Channel.

Just two years ago, launches of such drones were rare. Now they occur almost daily, with hundreds of drones targeting oil extraction and processing sites. The oil industry is one of Russia’s main sources of revenue and it accounted for more than half of the country’s exports in 2023, making it a key source of funding for Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council reports that Ukrainian strikes have taken about 20 percent of Russia’s oil refining capacity offline, which directly affects its ability to continue the hostilities.

For a long time, the West was reluctant to supply Ukraine with precision-strike weapons, so as not to expand the war to regions beyond Ukraine. Systems like the American ATACMS have a range of 300 km, while the UK’s Storm Shadow missiles can reach 200 km. These systems are also limited in number and expensive. Therefore, they are used selectively as high-precision weapons for critical targets.

Drones are one way to wage large-scaled asymmetric warfare — a drone costing $50,000–$60,000 can inflict millions or even billions of dollars in damage.

“This is inflicting significant financial damage, and it’s really helping us win this war. The precision strikes are doing a great job of crippling their industrial capacity - especially in oil and gas - and this will pay off in due course,” Serhii said.

On average, Ukraine carried out more than 200 launches per day in March, targeting oil terminals and ports, frequently causing significant damage. Among the ports hit were Ust-Luga and Primorsk — two of the most critical berths for Russian oil exports. In addition, strikes hit a naval base in Novorossiysk where, according to reports, two frigates carrying Kalibr cruise missiles used for attacks on Ukraine were damaged.

Novorossiysk attack. Photo from Telegram channel Supernova. The Counteroffensive could not verify it independently.

Deep strikes require a lot of behind-the-scenes work: choosing the target, routes, and how to surpass air defense systems. Each mission also requires a post-strike analysis to minimize future mistakes.

“I tip my hat to the guys who carry out deep-strike missions, to the guys who execute them, and to the guys who plan these operations, identify targets, and map out routes. It’s a truly Herculean task — one that goes largely unseen. We see it in videos — refineries going up in flames — but it’s incredibly hard work,” Serhii said.

The drones Serhii manufactures have also shown Russia the cost of its war, as drones from his design bureau were used in the Kursk military operation. As for the rest of the drones, he doesn’t know exactly where the military is deploying them or what targets each one has struck, but simple words of gratitude motivate him to continue developing this technology.

“One of the brigades we work with told me that last month, using only our drones, they turned 250 Russians into ‘200s’ [killed-in-action]. It feels very nice to get feedback from the guys,” he said.

Serhii also continues to accept military personnel for drone pilot training. At first, they accepted anyone who wanted to join, but now they only accept military personnel whose skills can truly be useful in combat. The training is free for military personnel.

To fly a drone, a person must wear goggles to monitor the flight and use a joystick to control it. Serhii says that people perform very differently during training. Some people get dizzy from the goggles and the rapid image changes, and this kind of work might not be for them; others need more time to learn. The result is the same: many people come back to it again and again because it has an element of play to it.

A drone operator works with a drone (illustrative photo). Photo courtesy of U-Force.

“You can’t call it a game [for soldiers], because you’d have to be a sociopath for killing someone to be a game to you. They understand that they’re killing a person, but at the same time, they’re killing an enemy,” Serhii said.

Now Serhii manages about 250 people working at various locations across Ukraine. He had to spread out production due to the Russian threat, not wanting to concentrate production in one place that could be hit.

His constant personal goal is to achieve a 75 percent hit rate with the drones they manufacture.

“7,000 [Ukrainian drones deployed in March] is a decent number, but if 75 percent out of that 7,000 missions result in hits, the Russians will be wiped out very quickly. We need technology that allows our drones to complete their missions,” Serhii said.

Anastasiia Lutsenko and Kateryna Antonenko contributed to this report.

NEWS OF THE DAY:

By Anastasiia Lutsenko

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

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CAT OF CONFLICT:

This is Myroslava’s cat named Stuhna. She’s waiting for the moment when she’ll have to run away from Myroslava’s little son.

Stay safe out there.

Best,
Anastasiia