- That's not a UFO, it's a unique Russian first-person-view attack drone with an underslung ring
- The ring is bulky, but it actually improves the drone's aerodynamics and extends its range
- Flying deeper behind the wide gray zone, Russian drones have been targeting Ukrainian logistics
- The KVS is one way how
Russian forces have been extending their drone strikes into the critical logistical zone between 20 and 100 km beyond the wide, contested "gray zone" that straddles the 1,200-km front line of Russia's war on Ukraine.
And now we have a better sense of how they've done it. A Russian source recently posted the clearest photos yet of first-person-view attack drones with add-on rings that sit below the drones' four tiny rotors. This ring FPV—designated the KVS, or Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavych—bears a strong resemblance to Hollywood conceptions of an alien unidentified flying object, or UFO, and flies farther than standard FPVs thanks to a unique aerodynamic effect.
The move came to counter Ukraine's advantage in the ever-changing drone war race. Ukraine had pushed drone warfare past 20 km—far enough that fiber-optic cables snapped under their own length and Russia's unjammable FPVs lost their edge. The KVS closes that window. "We set the goal of sending a standard drone to the appropriate distance—and we solved it," Alexander Chadaev, CEO of Ushkuynyk, a sanctioned drone manufacturer in Veliky Novgorod that now produces more than 50,000 KVN fiber-optic FPVs a month, wrote this week.
Both sides in the wider war build FPV drones by the millions every year and deploy them in the gray zone for strikes on infantry and vehicles. A typical FPV weighs just a few kilograms, carries a warhead with the explosive power of a grenade and ranges just a few kilometers under the control of a nearby operator with a line-of-sight radio.
But there are many variations of the standard FPV. There are unjammable models that send and receive signals via kilometers-long optical fiber. There are models with special shaped-charge warheads for penetrating vehicle armor. There are models with AI-assisted targeting that can home in on enemy troops and vehicles even when the distant operator loses their connection to the drone.
Now there's the KVS, with its ring-shaped wing. Its main benefit is extended range—up to 50 km, several times the endurance of a standard FPV. That's far enough to reach the region behind the gray zone where Ukrainian forces concentrate their artillery, air defenses, and front-line logistics.
50 km is too far for line-of-sight radio, so the ring-wing KVS carries a spool of optical fiber connecting it to its operator.
Paradoxical drone
The KVS is a paradox. Yes, it's bulkier and heavier than a standard FPV thanks to its metal ring and optical fiber spool. But that ring actually boosts the drone's overall aerodynamic performance, making it more efficient despite the extra bulk and weight. The rotor tips extend slightly beyond the ring—it doesn't enclose them. Instead the ring acts as an annular wing: its closed oval contour channels airflow downward more efficiently than open rotors alone. "By directing airflow downwards when passing through the closed wing contour, additional lifting force is created," Canadian drone expert Roy explained.
The additional lift gives the KVS its range that makes it a serious threat to rear-area Ukrainian forces that, as recently as a couple of years ago, were relatively safe from Russian drone strikes by virtue of sheer distance from the main fighting.
The Russians have introduced so many extended-range small drones in recent years that, for a little while at least, they actually had the drone edge in the logistical zone despite operating drones that are, on the whole, inferior to their Ukrainian equivalents.
originally 15–20 km
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Back in February, Ryan O'Leary—an American who once led a volunteer company fighting for Ukraine—worried aloud that Ukrainian leaders were deploying lots of short-range drones in the gray zone at the expense of medium-range drones in the logistical zone, and thus handing Russia an unmanned strike advantage at certain distances from the front.
"Ukrainian drones are still optimized for destroying infantry, not for changing sectors," O'Leary stressed in a now-deleted social media post. "This creates cool videos, but delivers weak strategic effect."
It was a huge mistake on the Ukrainians' part, O'Leary warned. "The drone war is not about the number of killed today," O'Leary wrote. "It is about controlling the space tomorrow. Ownership of the depth means control of movement, logistics, [surveillance], communication and decisions in the sector, not just in the trench."
Ukrainian leaders realized they had a problem. In recent months, they've rushed more medium-range FP-2 and Bulava drones into action. Now there may be drone parity in the air over the respective Russian and Ukrainian logistical zones.
Why the KVS exists
The backstory runs deeper than aerodynamics. Ukraine couldn't match Russia's fiber-optic FPVs in quantity or quality at close range—Chadaev said as much—so Ukrainian commanders, Madyar among them, changed the terms: push the kill zone past 20 km, where physics works against the attacker. Fiber-optic cable snaps. Each extra kilometer adds a few percent probability of losing the drone entirely.
At 10–12 km, Russia was winning the fiber-optic duel. At 20–30 km the break statistics flipped, and Ukraine's cheaper radio-controlled drones—boosted by Starlink relays and air-launched from mother drones—could operate with impunity across the logistical zone Russia needed to threaten.
The KVS is Russia's aerodynamic counter: same 10-inch frame, same 3 kg payload as the standard KVN, engineered to reach the distances Ukraine had claimed as its own.
For as long as Russia held the advantage in the Ukrainian logistical zone, Ushkuynyk's ring-wing KVS was one reason why. If there's a downside to the type, it's the cost. The ring itself is a small expense, but 50 km of increasingly precious optical fiber isn't. Chinese manufacturers, who produce much of the world's optical fiber, have reported sharp increases in the per-kilometer price as demand rises in Ukraine and other war zones.
originally 15–20 km
