For first time, Russia merged two separate drone types onto one Mesh network. Ukraine already has answer

Russia has connected two of its drones that could not talk to each other before. Ukraine has documented a case in which Russia controlled "Molniya" drones via "Gerbera" relay drones over a MESH network, which was previously impossible due to a licensing restriction, presidential adviser on defense technology development Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov said.

That MESH network is the technology Russia now relies on for its entire drone-control system. In it, radio modems on the drones connect to one another in the air, each relaying to the next, so that if one drone drops out, the signal routes around it through another, Beskrestnov explained.

Same Chinese manufacturer produces these drones 

Even if 80% of the drones are destroyed, the rest can still relay. The network lets operators inside Russia steer drones over Ukraine from hundreds of kilometers away, and it is what makes the online-controlled Shahed a hard air-defense problem Ukraine faces.

The new development is that two previously separate drones have joined the same mesh. The MESH modems on the Molniya and the Shahed-family Gerbera come from the same Chinese manufacturer and operate on the same frequency band, Beskrestnov said, but until now they were not compatible with each other due to a licensing restriction.

"Today we have the first case of controlling Molniyas through a Gerbera," he said.

Flash says fix is simple: kill Gerbera

Beskrestnov called the change expected and told Ukraine's air defenders how to answer it. He asked everyone to note the fact, because the scheme will probably spread.

"If anything, we drop the Gerbera, and the Molniyas fall on their own," he said.

The logic is the relay chain's own weakness: if the Gerbera is the node passing control to the Molniyas, destroying that relay severs the Molniyas from their operators. A drone flying on a link that no longer exists loses its guidance.

That points at a target Ukraine already tracks. The Gerbera is a cheap foam decoy-and-reconnaissance drone Russia flies alongside Shaheds to draw fire, scout air defenses, and, increasingly, carry the mesh modems that relay control to other drones. Turning it into a control node for Molniyas makes it more valuable to Russia and more worth shooting down for Ukraine.