Top Ukrainian commander says drones hit over 67,000 Russian targets in a month, offering a look into the onslaught

Ukrainian drones hit nearly 70,000 Russian targets in August, Kyiv’s top commander revealed on Monday, offering a new numerical look into how prolific this technology is in battle.

The figure speaks to the growing role that drones are playing on the battlefield, as Ukraine and Russia use uncrewed systems in the air, on the ground, and at sea to execute a host of operations, including attack, reconnaissance, and logistics missions.

“Overall, our drones struck more than 67,000 enemy targets last month,” Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a recap of the fighting in August. He said that the effectiveness of drone strikes under the “middle strike” program, likely referring to mid-range targets, increased by 25%.

Business Insider reached out to Ukraine’s defense ministry for additional information about the figures, including what targets were hit, but has not yet received a response. The figures presented represent just one side of the massive drone war unfolding across Ukrainian battlefields.

Both Ukraine and Russia field drones of various ranges to strike targets at the front and behind the lines. These systems can be small, cheap quadcopter drones controlled by radio frequencies or tethered to their operators by a fiber-optic cable that have a reach of usually around 10 miles or larger fixed-wing drones capable of flying hundreds of miles into enemy territory.

Syrskyi said that during the month of August, Ukrainian “deep strike” weapons — usually long-range drones and missiles that can reach into Russian territory — struck 60 targets inside Russia. Kyiv’s attacks usually focus on high-profile military and energy sites such as air bases, weapons production facilities, and oil refineries.

The Ukrainian attacks have “weakened” Russia’s air defense systems, missile and drone programs, ability to produce fuel for the military, and aerial bombing capabilities, Syrskyi said. He added that Kyiv has also disrupted Russia’s transport system.

Russia’s defense ministry and its embassy in the US did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider about the Ukrainian command-level figures and information.

Ukraine is taking hits as well, though. Ukrainian officials said that Russia carried out its largest air attack of the war overnight on Saturday, launching over 800 long-range strike and decoy drones, and more than a dozen cruise and ballistic missiles. The deadly attack damaged Ukraine’s government building in Kyiv for the first time since Moscow’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.

“This alone is a serious escalation,” said Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister.

Like Ukraine, Russia has invested heavily in the development and production of long-range drones — specifically, its own variant of the Iranian-designed Shahed-136 loitering munitions. Recent Western assessments suggest that Moscow might eventually be able to launch 2,000 of these systems in a single night.

To defend against the increase in Russian Shahed-type drone attacks this year without further taxing an already-strained air defense network, Ukraine is relying more on interceptor drones as a low-cost air defense solution. Kyiv said that nearly a fifth of the attack drones were taken out by the interceptors during the massive attack over the weekend.

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