Russian observation drones are operating freely over the battlefield and can call in artillery, air and missile strikes without interference because the Ukrainian Ground Forces have little to shoot them with, Oleksandr Syrsky, commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), said in a statement.
Lt. Gen. Syrsky in comments published on Monday on his personal Telegram channel said that Ukrainian forces are facing a “total shortage” of hand-held anti-aircraft missiles and must find “new ways” to attack the Russian reconnaissance aircraft armed with advanced sensors and muti-spectral cameras. He suggested troops under his command improve jamming techniques and develop tactics for using one-way kamikaze drones to intercept and ram the enemy robot planes.
A Tuesday statement by the AFU General Staff (AGS) reported the Russian Air Force on Monday set new numerical record with 132 glider bomb strikes against Ukrainian forces, most in support of the main Russian offensive effort toward Pokrovsk.
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Russian state-run media has repeatedly claimed the Kremlin’s attacks across the front will ultimately succeed, because Ukrainian forces are unable to oppose long-range Russian air and missile strikes called in by observation drones Kyiv’s troops are unable to engage.
Kyiv Post research into images and drone video published by pro-Russia information platforms in the first half of July confirmed Russian observation drones are at least at times operating deep behind Ukrainian lines at multiple locations and are find targets and observer missile strikes on them, apparently without interference.
Camera-toting Russian drones have in the past two weeks flown as much as 50 kilometers into Ukrainian territory and recorded Russian long-range missile strikes in the Kharkiv, Donetsk, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa regions. Ukrainian troop-training bases, airfields, rail hubs, anti-aircraft systems, ammunition storage sites, and equipment warehouses were among the targets, Kyiv Post review of 15 videos published since July 10 showed.
Starting in Spring some Ukrainian air defenders have taken to the skies themselves aboard single-engine training planes, with the passenger armed with an automatic rifle or a shotgun, to hunt down free-flying Russian drones.
Ukrainian forces much prefer to use highly-effect hand-held, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to attack Russian drones, but supplies of those weapons have run short as Ukraine’s main suppliers of such weaponry – the US, Poland, France and the UK – have nearly emptied existing stocks and found local manufacturers unable to gear up quickly to manufacture more weapons.
According to US defense media, in 2023 Raytheon, the manufacturer of highly-successful-in-Ukraine Stinger anti-aircraft missile, called in retired engineers and technicians to restart production lines stopped two decades ago.
Skyrsky’s comments on the gap in anti-drone missiles – often called MANPADS (man-portable air-defense systems) in NATO vernacular, followed a two-day visit to front-line formations in the heavily pressed eastern Donbas sector, scene of repeated Russian ground assaults and massed bombardments in past weeks.
“The enemy is ignoring rather high levels of losses and is continuing to push,” Syrsky said. Russian forces currently are embarked on a broad-front offensive, he said, and are launching daily attacks against the Donbas towns and villages of Krasnohorivka, Progres, Zalizny, Stelmakhivka, Makiivka, Ivanovsky, Chasiv Yar, Ivanovsky and Klishchiivka. The Russian strategy is to use massed firepower to reach and capture its key objective, the Donbas transportation hub city of Pokrovsk, Syrsky said.
Syrsky said Ukrainian troops would stay on the defensive and should focus on inflicting maximum losses on Russian forces and keeping friendly casualties as low as possible, rather than regaining lost ground. Defensive tactics should incorporate fortifications, mine fields and particularly FPV kamikaze drones, one of the few weapons categories in which Ukrainian troops have a clear advantage over their Russian opponents, he said.
Syrsky visited soldiers, officers and commanders of the 47th Mechanized Brigade and 95th Air Assault Brigade. Both are longstanding fighting units stationed in the Avdiivka/Pokrovsk sector for months. Kremlin forces captured Avdiivka in February 2024 and since then have advanced 15 kilometers westward in heavy combat against sometimes bitter Ukrainian resistance.
According to soldiers in those units, Russian forces are often poorly trained and have only advanced at the cost of extremely heavy casualties.
Syrsky made no direct reference to the lost ground but praised troops for holding the line successfully, and in ceremonies in brigade command bunkers handed out medals for valor to soldiers from both units. He later observed soldiers training in trench attacks and defense.
Training to improve tactical efficiency is taking place even in frontline units like the 47th and the 95th; Commanders and their staffs need to prioritize making their units as lethal as possible, he said.
“[We need] mastery in the use of weapons and equipment, effective fire, maneuvering with fire, forces and means – that is, high-quality training of all categories of service members to perform combat tasks. It is important to prepare the staffs of all levels to maximize the combat capabilities of the troops and minimize our losses,” Syrsky said.
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