700 miles inside Russia, fire rains down on a factory that once built the drones used to kill Ukrainian civilians. In seconds, 264,000 tons of ammunition erupt in a single, deafening blast, derailing Russia’s summer offensive before it begins. Strategic drone strikes slash Kremlin oil profits by 10%, dragging production to its lowest point in two decades.
One force is powering every of these breakthroughs: Ukraine’s homegrown tech.
Three years into the full-scale invasion, the hunted has become the hunter. Moscow’s military planners now wake to urgent calls about facilities they thought untouchable, destroyed by weapons that didn’t exist last year.
While Western aid remains crucial, Ukraine is no longer waiting. In just two years, domestic arms production has soared tenfold, now covering 40% of frontline needs — a game-changing shift the Trump administration has yet to fully appreciate.
Former defense minister Oleksii Reznikov dubbed it “Ukraine’s Silicon Valley moment” — a wartime tech surge where engineers turn garages into weapons labs and outpace a superpower in real time. He argues the smartest way to secure Europe isn’t more aid, but joint ventures that turn Ukraine’s defense boom into a shared arsenal — the continent’s best insurance policy.
“Ukraine will always need its own strong weapons so that we can have our own strong Ukrainian state,” President Zelenskyy said. ”Ukraine will always need its own technological superiority so that Russia knows that we will respond to every attack.”
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The fiercest arms sprint since World War II
Ukraine’s breakneck innovation rivals America’s WWII military buildup — only this time, it’s done with a fraction of the resources and under direct attack.
Nowhere is Ukraine’s defense transformation more visible than in its drone sector — once reliant on crowdfunded models. What began as a grassroots effort in 2014 has evolved into full-scale production: by late 2023, nearly 40% of frontline weapons were domestically made. In 2024 alone, Ukraine produced 1.5 million drones — with over 95% of those used at the front now built at home.
Kamikaze drones lead the charge among the 330 drone models approved in 2024. Ukraine has quadrupled production of long-range strike drones, now aiming to surpass 2,000 units per month – a tenfold increase in just two years.
Among the most significant breakthroughs is a long-range reusable drone bomber – believed to be a modified Aeroprakt A-22 sport plane – that can fly 1,200 miles, drop a 550-pound bomb, and return to base. Unlike earlier models used in one-way missions, this platform allows for multiple sorties.
These new capabilities are already reshaping the battlefield. In January 2025 alone, Ukraine took out nine Russian oil refineries — wiping out 10% of the country’s refining capacity and dragging crude production to a 20-year low. Over just six months, Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia’s energy sector have inflicted at least $658 million in damage, even by conservative estimates.
With Ukrainian drone strikes having around a 67% success rate, the strikes have forced the Kremlin to acknowledge a growing vulnerability.
According to Serhii Kuzan, chair of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center, Ukraine’s drone strikes aim to choke off fuel supplies to the Russian military and slash the export revenues funding the Kremlin’s war — dealing a direct blow to both its economy and armed forces.
“While Moscow has found ways to shield itself from some of the effects of sanctions, it currently has no full protection against Ukrainian drones,” Kuzan says.
Ukraine hit Russia 7,000 times — without Western weapons
Ukraine’s ability to strike 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) deep into Russia is redefining the front lines — bringing the war to territory Moscow once thought untouchable. The deep-strike drone strategy is clear: cripple logistics, wipe out ammunition depots, and ease pressure on the front lines.
By October 2024, Ukraine had carried out over 7,000 strikes inside Russian territory — some reaching as far as 1,700 kilometers (1,056 miles). With Western weapons restricted from use on Russian soil, Ukraine is leaning on homegrown tech to take the fight into enemy territory.
According to Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, long-range Ukrainian strikes on ammunition depots in Russia have halved Moscow’s artillery fire rate — dropping daily shelling from 40,000 to 23,000 rounds by early 2025.
It peaked on 22 April, a massive explosion devastated the 51st Arsenal of Russia’s Main Missile and Artillery Directorate (GRAU) in Barsovo, Vladimir Oblast — one of Russia’s biggest ammunition depots. Believed to hold up to 264,000 tons of munitions, the blast marked one of the most devastating strikes on Russia’s military stockpiles to date.
Preliminary reports suggest a Ukrainian long-range drone strike — likely using the homegrown Palianytsia system — triggered catastrophic secondary detonations that destroy Russia’s annual bombardment supply, in an explosion visible from space.
It marked the latest breakthrough for Palianytsia, unveiled in August 2024. Powered by a jet engine, the drone delivers high-speed strikes that evade Russian air defenses — enabling nearly 20 hits on airbases and ammunition depots deep inside Russia’s rear, areas once off-limits due to Western weapons bans.
From drone innovations to military doctrine
As drones begin to replace traditional artillery on parts of the front, unmanned systems have become the backbone of Ukraine’s battlefield strategy.
“Ukrainians are relying mainly on one-way attack drones, as well as some indigenously produced cruise missile systems,” said US Army General Christopher Cavoli, commander of the United States European Command.
This evolution is institutional as well as tactical. Yuriy Fedorenko, the commander of The Achilles UAV battalion, claims the unit has eliminated nearly 20,000 enemy targets using drones and expects to hit that target annually once fully staffed.
On 9 February, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry launched the “Drone Line” initiative — a major push to weave drones into the heart of frontline operations. The program aims to modernize warfare by equipping elite Ground Forces and Border Guard units with advanced unmanned systems.
Defense Minister Rustem Umerov called it “a transformative step in warfare,” putting drones – already vital for various operations – at the heart of combat.
Phase one targets five elite units to create an integrated infantry-drone strike system with a 10–15 km kill zone, built to trap and destroy enemy forces. The initiative also upgrades recon, targeting, and precision strike capabilities.
This move marked the latest step in Ukraine’s drive to build drones into a full-fledged military domain. In February 2024, the Defense Ministry launched the Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) — a dedicated branch for drone warfare, electronic combat, and AI integration.
Budget missiles with battlefield-breaking range
Samuel Bendett, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, observes that Russia is increasingly mirroring Ukrainian drone tactics. He notes that Moscow’s newly formed Unmanned Systems Forces, launched in December 2024, may be modeled on Ukraine’s own unit, established that February.
Despite wartime constraints, Ukraine has rapidly ramped up domestic weapons production. Casper, commander of the 1st Battalion of the 14th Separate UAV Regiment, says 80–90% of the drones his unit now uses are made in Ukraine — compared to near-total reliance on foreign models in the early years of the war.
“At the start it was the other way round,” he says. “Foreign models are like Toyotas now, while Ukrainian ones are Mercedes. Ours are just leagues ahead.”
Ukraine aims to produce around 30,000 long-range drones in 2025, capable of striking targets over 1,000 miles inside Russia.
To ensure the success of long-range strikes, Ukraine often sends decoy drones first to overwhelm Russian air defenses — clearing the way for combat drones to hit targets deep inside the country. The tactic is working: Ukrainian drones are now reaching targets over 1,000 kilometers away, slipping past Russia’s defenses untouched.
From sea killers to land strikers
Several homegrown systems are now in action. The Neptune missile — originally designed to strike ships and credited with sinking the Moskva in 2022 — has since been adapted for land attacks. In 2024, the revamped system began hitting targets deep inside Russia, including a March 2025 strike on the Tuapse refinery over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) away.
The Hrim-2, a hypersonic ballistic missile, passed tests in late 2024, while the Palianytsia, a missile-drone hybrid, entered mass production in December.
Ukraine has also started fielding Peklo (“Hell”) missile drones — long-range, jet-propelled weapons capable of flying 700 km (435 miles) at speeds of 700 km/h. Developed in under a year, Peklo drones reportedly rival Russian cruise missiles in performance but cost far less — under $200,000 per unit, compared to even Russia’s cheapest missiles, which start at $500,000.
In February 2025, Kyiv took a step further and unveiled the Trembita light cruise missile — a strike-capable system costing just $14,000 per unit, making it one of the cheapest cruise missiles globally..
On March 17, Zelensky announced that a domestically developed long-range drone had successfully completed a 3,000-kilometer (1,864 miles) test. In the same briefing, he highlighted advancements in Ukraine’s missile program, including the “Long Neptune,” a new missile with a 1,000-kilometer range that has already been tested in combat.
“We are developing a line of long-range weapons that will help guarantee our country’s security,” Zelenskyy said.
From broken promises to frontline breakthroughs
Officials say even more advanced systems are being tested in secret, as Ukraine’s decentralized innovation ecosystem – described as the world’s largest military lab – continues to develop cutting-edge capabilities to outsmart Russia’s larger, better-funded forces.
Volodymyr Dubovyk, Director of the Center for International Studies at Odesa Mechnykov National University, says Ukraine’s long-range drone and missile program is advancing rapidly — despite the pressure of full-scale war.
“One can only imagine the potential in peacetime,” he says. “If more technologies and funding are added by external partners, this would only increase the effect and accelerate the process.”
He adds that while these weapons can’t yet stop Russian advances outright, they’re already reshaping the battlefield — serving as a growing deterrent with real impact.
“These weapons cannot, at the moment, fully arrest the encroachment of Russian troops in the south and east of Ukraine,” he says. “But they can seriously delay and complicate it, while also destabilizing certain regions within Russia.”
Ukraine’s drone edge has the Pentagon paying close attention. Under Project Artemis, the US is testing Ukrainian long-range kamikaze drones — built with American partners — to see how they hold up against GPS jamming and electronic warfare.
The aim is to build low-cost, resilient systems ready for rapid deployment in future high-intensity conflicts, including potential confrontations with China.
“Ukraine is doing what it must – creating its own pressure points,” says Bill Cole, founder of the Peace Through Strength Institute. “If the West delays, Ukraine will do it alone. But if we’re smart, we’ll help them now and make sure the next war never starts.”
Ukraine surrendered its nuclear arsenal in 1994 under the Budapest Memorandum, banking on security assurances from Russia, the US, and the U.K. to find itself outside NATO’s protective umbrella when the full-scale invasion began.
Kyiv now signals it won’t stake its security on paper assurances again.
“You do not get peace with Putin by asking nicely. Ukraine has learned that the hard way,” Bill Cole says. “A real deterrent is the only language Russia understands.”
