Ukraine's new drone surprise to Kremlin: Any target inside Russia can now be easily hit

Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said that in 2024 Ukraine managed to increase the production of long-range UAVs tenfold compared to last year. Fedorov said this in an interview with Welt.
"Most of the drones that attacked Russian oil refineries have a range of 700 to 1,000 kilometres, but now there are models that can fly over 1,000 kilometres", he added.
The minister reported that the outcome depends on the progress in drone development. Fedorov predicts that the first prototypes of artificial intelligence drones in small numbers could appear on the battlefield by the end of 2024.
However, the official says, it is currently impossible to say who is winning the technological war.
"However, it is not yet possible to say who is winning the technological war – in some areas we are winning, in others the Russians are surpassing us", Mykhailo Fedorov added.
Fedorov also said prototype drones with AI technology could appear on the battlefield by the end of 2024.
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree in February to create a new branch of Ukraine's Armed Forces specifically dedicated to drones.
The Unmanned Systems Forces will reportedly focus specifically on improving Ukraine's work with drones, creating special drone-specific units, ramping up training, systemizing their use, increasing production, and pushing innovation.Zelensky said in January that one of the main goals for 2024 was outpacing Russia in the production of drones. The Ukraine-Russia war has become a proving ground for what drones can do in conflict. With the war now in its third year, Ukraine is leaning hard into drones as a combat strategy, ramping up its domestic production and counting on allies to deliver one million of them in the next 12 months.
Colonel Kristen Thompson, a U.S. air force military fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, credits Ukraine's nimble use of drones with helping it hold its own against Russia.
"Ukraine's ability to acquire and crowdsource commercial drone technology, tactically modify drones in the field based on real-time feedback and alter tactics to defeat anti-drone systems have proved to be crucial to its war effort," Thompson said.