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Ukraine created drone army one year ago. It already destroyed $40 billion worth in Russian targets

✇Euromaidan Press
By: Olena Mukhina

Semikolodezyanska oil depot in Yedi-Quyu (Lenine), occupied Crimea, amid a Ukrainian drone attack. Screenshot from video: Ukraine's Special Operations Forces

Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS) have struck Russian targets worth nearly $40 billion in the year since the branch's creation, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. On 10 June, the Ukrainian president signed a decree establishing the Day of Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS Day).

The $40 billion cumulative damage figure Zelenskyy cited represents a 57% increase over the $25.5 billion in cumulative Russian losses that Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi reported in April 2026.

The SBS Day decree institutionalizes the unmanned forces as a permanent feature of Ukraine's military doctrine, alongside the army, navy, and air force.

What Zelenskyy said about SBS's achievements

"Only a year since the creation of the SBS group, Russian targets at various levels worth nearly $40 billion have already been hit," Zelenskyy said in his evening address.

He added that SBS is really a model for many other armies, and "these months we are especially grateful for middlestrikes."

"Russian military logistics across the entire depth of the temporarily occupied territory is now accessible to Ukrainian drones. The Russian border zone also experiences our impact," he stated.

The president added that Russia already feels the effect of these strikes, and Ukraine will continue to scale them.

"The most important thing is that these are different types of strikes, and each one adds to our ability to save lives," the Ukrainian president added.

What does middlestrike mean operationally? 

The middlestrike concept Zelenskyy invoked refers to Ukrainian drone strikes against Russian military logistics in the depth of occupied territory and across the Russian border zone. The depth zone covers Donetsk, Luhansk, Crimea, and parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts. The Russian border zone reaches Belgorod and Kursk. Middlestrikes sit between the very-long-range deep strikes against strategic Russian infrastructure, such as the Volgograd refineries, and the tactical frontline FPV operations. The SBS is led by Brigadier General Robert Brovdi, call sign "Madiar".

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Russia starts hauling gasoline to the front in the trunks of civilian cars

✇Euromaidan Press
By: Yuri Zoria

russia starts hauling gasoline front trunks civilian cars · post jerrycans loaded supply russian forces occupied ukraine 2026 перевезення-бензину-цивільними-автівками-для-військових-рф-на-тимчасово-окупованій-тери news ukrainian reports

Russia has begun moving gasoline to its frontline units in occupied Ukraine in convoys of civilian cars, the Ukrainian defense outlet Militarnyi reported. Soldiers filmed themselves loading jerrycans into ordinary trunks, an improvised workaround after Ukrainian drone strikes made fuel tankers too risky to run. Russian forces are also disguising army trucks as civilian vehicles along the supply route to occupied Crimea.

This comes amid Ukraine’s ongoing “Logistics Lockdown,” a campaign by several Ukrainian military branches and the Security Service to target Russian fuel, logistics, and other supplies across occupied territories, at depths of up to 200 km.

Soldiers filmed the fuel run themselves

A video on the Exilenova+ Telegram channel showed Russians describing a convoy of passenger cars assembled to carry one metric ton of gasoline, Militarnyi reported. A man off-camera says the cars left the city of Kizilyurt in Dagestan, Russia, on the local head's orders, with the fuel destined for Russian units in occupied Tokmak, Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The footage shows jerrycans filling the trunks:

Besides the fuel, the drivers carried 1.5 million rubles ($20,900) to buy another batch of gasoline. Fuel keeps Russian frontline positions running: generators power electronic-warfare systems, charge batteries for reconnaissance and strike drones, and run communications gear in dugouts and observation posts.

Disguised trucks and a strained supply line

Russian forces have also begun disguising army trucks as civilian transport because of Ukrainian drone attacks deep in the rear. In northern Crimea, monitors spotted a freshly painted blue Ural truck driven by a man in civilian clothes, still carrying military plates, its oversized body posing as a dump truck.

The command of Russia's Dnepr grouping ordered mass use of civilian vehicles to move fuel along the route linking Rostov-on-Don with occupied Crimea, the Krymsky Veter monitoring project reported. That improvisation tracks the M-14 corridor, now within Ukraine's deepening drone range.
Drones of the 20th Separate Brigade of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS), known as K-2, and the Phoenix drone unit strike a Russian military truck on a logistics route in Donetsk Oblast, 7 June 2026. Photo: SBS
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ISW: The strikes will likely cascade into deeper disruption across Russia’s rear supply network

Why Russia is improvising

Ukraine's Defense Forces have intensified drone strikes on logistics trucks and fuel tankers on the roads from Russia to occupied Crimea. The attacks have already forced the occupiers to limit cargo traffic through the occupied part of Kherson Oblast toward the peninsula, and Russia has closed stretches of its own land corridor to keep them clear of strike drones.

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