Ukraine Drone Troops Claim Big Russian Kill Scores, Announce Expansion Plans for 2026

Ukrainian drone pilots last year killed or seriously injured more than 240,000 Russian soldiers, and the country’s drone forces plan dramatic expansion and beefier battlefield results in 2026, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on Monday.

Ukrainian First Person View (FPV) and bomber drones carried out almost 820,000 (precisely: 819,737) successful strikes in 2025, all of which were confirmed by drone video, Federov said at a military awards ceremony reported by the ministry.

Besides hits on individual and groups of Russian soldiers, Ukrainian drones struck and knocked out or severely damaged more than 29,000 heavy weapons like tanks and artillery, 62,000 lighter battlefield material like automobiles and ammunition storage sites, and shot down more than 32,000 Russian reconnaissance or strike drones, Fedorov said. Every hit was confirmed by drone video, he said.

“Today, more than 80% of enemy targets are destroyed by drones. The absolute majority are drones of Ukrainian manufacturers,” Fedorov said. “For the first time, we [a fighting army] are receiving real, verified data from the battlefield that can be used for management decisions.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during the event, praised the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) drone forces and handed out awards to commanders of drone units that scored highest in operations during 2025.

Ukraine’s youngest cabinet minister, Fedorov, in 2022 following Russia’s second invasion, was an early proponent of increased drone use within the Ukrainian military. His 2023 initiative organizing a “kill points system” to motivate drone operators to hunt priority Russian targets and compete with each other for better results has been a great success, Zelensky said.

Often called the Army of Drones Bonus or “e-points” system, the scoring plan awards a drone unit, (among other targets), 12 points for killing a Russian infantry soldier, 8 points for a wounded soldier, 25 points for a killed or wounded Russian drone operator, 40 points for a destroyed tank, and 50 points for a rocket artillery system. Among the highest valued targets, currently, are for a Russian soldier captured alive by a drone (120 points), and shooting down or destroying on the ground a manned Russian helicopter (100 points).

The highest-scoring drone unit of the year was 414th Unmanned Systems Forces Brigade “Birds of of Madyar” (Ukrainian: Птахи Мадьяра) with a, per that unit’s reports, 18,297 confirmed hits on individual Russian soldiers, along with enemy 124 tanks, 319 lighter armored vehicles, 257 artillery systems and 4,058 drones knocked out by that outfit over the past 12 months.

Other high-scoring drone units named in the ceremony included the Ukrainian national intelligence agency’s Strike Unit Alpha, the National Guard’s elite Lasar Group, and the strike drone unit organic to the 3rd Assault Infantry Brigade, a crack combat unit raised in Kyiv.

“It is you who turn technology into real power and prove that modern war is won not by mass, but by intelligence, speed and accuracy. I thank each of you for the result,” Federov said.

Federov, in mid-January, announced the AFU’s drone forces in 2026 would expand and would have, as their main performance objective for the year, the goal of killing or severely wounding 50,000 or more Russian soldiers over the next twelve months.

Speaking at the NATO-led Operational Force Development Framework (OFDEF) conference on Jan. 22 in Poland, Deputy Minister of Defense Serhiy Boyev said Ukraine is supporting intensified drone operations – with a ramp up in drone manufacturing, from a reported 4 million aircraft produced in 2025 to a target 7 million drones in 2026.

Aside from the top priority of inflicting maximum casualties on attacking Russian forces, Boyev said, the national military drone capacity expansion program will seek to extend the aircraft’s effective strike range from a current 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) behind Russian lines to 100 kilometers (62.1 miles).

Currently, some 500 Ukrainian companies manufacture drones, and about 95% of all drones used in combat against Russia are domestically manufactured, he said.

Partnering with European states like Norway to develop advanced technology aircraft should, with time and battlefield experience, help Ukraine improve its position as a “drone superpower” competing successfully with Israel and China, Boyev said.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday announced that, for the first time in the war, all supply chains used by the AFU for supply of drones had become fully-digitalized following the implementation of a cross-AFU supply tracking system called DOT-Chain Arsenal.

AFU drone units logged into the centralized management system will be able to place orders for replacement aircraft and spare parts as existing stocks are expended, and the system will match replacement orders to drone manufacturers and aircraft reserves.

This should give “operational level support for rapid and transparent allocation of resources and control of their movement in real time,” the Ministry statement said.

Currently, Ukrainian drone units acquire new aircraft and munitions for them, as well as spare parts, via a sometimes-chaotic process with individual units competing for supplies of state-financed drones, or searching out drones to be manufactured by local industry and paid for by the unit.

Units often import drones or drone parts on their own, or battle for donor funding to buy drones or drone parts. Centralized, digitalized drone supply chains will reduce chaos and duplication, and put the maximum number of aircraft into the hands of the right operators at the right time, an official said.

“Thanks to digital tools, the state sees the movement of assets in real time – from the manufacturer to logistics warehouses. This allows for better control of processes and decision-making based on reliable data.

Where there were previously thousands of paper documents, there is now a system that provides a complete picture of the supply in a matter of seconds. This is critically important for the timely supply of the military with everything they need,” said Arsen Zhumadilov, Director of the Defense Procurement Agency of the Ministry of Defense.

Over time, the system will cover the supply of ammunition, electronic warfare equipment, ground equipment, property, as well as fuels and lubricants, the AFU statement said.

On Tuesday, Boyev met with with Alice Rufo, France’s Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces, in Kyiv to discuss joint military systems development. Speaking at a subsequent press conference, Boyev said the countries will work more closely on aerospace projects and the development of aerospace technologies.

Funding for future joint Franco-Ukrainian military tech projects would come, in part, from the Security Action for Europe (SAFE), an EU initiative providing low-interest, long-term loans to EU member states and supporting partners like Ukraine for investments in defense industrial production, a Tuesday Ukraine Defense Ministry statement said.

According to EU announcements, the total value of funds available via SAFE to EU member states and allies is €150 billion ($180 billion). The Defense Ministry statement did not give a figure for possible SAFE investment into Franco-Ukrainian defense manufacturing.

Currently, Ukraine’s top defense manufacturing partner states are the United Kingdom (air and sea drones), Germany (artillery ammunition, air defense systems, and armored combat vehicles), Norway (drones and smart munitions), Czechia (interceptor drones and air defense), and Denmark (artillery systems).