KHARKIV REGION, Ukraine (AP) — From a basement command post in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, drone pilots stare at thermal camera feeds streamed from aircraft flying hundreds of kilometers away over Russian-held territory, patiently waiting for vehicles to appear on the roads that keep enemy forces alive and fighting.
When a target comes into view, the pilots guide their aircraft into a dive, striking deep behind Russian lines to disrupt the flow of fuel, food, ammunition and other critical supplies.
“Our mission is to cut logistics,” said Kat, commander of Ukraine’s K-2 brigade, which operates midrange drones. “Cut off their supply lines, and the infantry on the front line have no food, no ammunition, no night vision, no batteries. Nothing. That’s how we’re wearing them down in every sense.”
Soldiers who spoke with The Associated Press agreed to be identified only by their military call signs rather than their real names, as required by military regulations.
Ukrainian commanders say the sustained strikes on major highways carrying fuel, ammunition and reinforcements have made Russian logistics slower, more expensive and far less predictable. That pressure, they say, has helped slow Russian advances and supported Ukrainian counterattacks, including strikes into illegally annexed Crimea aimed at cutting the peninsula off from the mainland.
Until recently, much of that territory was out of Ukraine’s reach. Short-range front-line drones couldn’t cover the distance, while long-range drones were saved for high-value strategic targets far away. That left a corridor roughly 25 to 200 kilometers (15 to 125 miles) wide where Russian troops and supplies could move with little interference.
Fixed-wing midrange drones outfitted with Starlink satellite communications have begun filling that gap, effectively turning Russia’s logistical rear into a contested zone.
“They’re ensuring that the Russians are constantly pressured along their supply logistics lines and that they are unable to supply certain parts of the front so that the situation may be more controllable,” said Samuel Bendett, a researcher at the Center for Naval Analyses.
Bendett noted that Ukraine will need to keep up the pressure while Russia works to develop countermeasures. He expects Moscow to eventually adapt, but said Russia’s larger military allows it to absorb greater losses in the meantime.
“The question is whether Ukraine can keep this pressure up over the next few weeks and months,” he said.
The infrastructure behind Ukraine’s midrange drone campaign blends into the surrounding landscape. Ordinary offices double as command centers. A carpenter’s workshop serves as a drone assembly point. A modest village home becomes a launch site.
The headquarters of K-2, one of Ukraine’s most elite drone units, is housed in an unremarkable workspace littered with coffee mugs, energy drink cans and e-cigarettes. In May alone, the unit launched 800 midrange drones from that room, with 650 successfully hitting their intended targets.
The pilots work in civilian clothes under bright fluorescent lights, eyes locked on computer monitors — looking more like office workers than combatants. But the grids on their screens are target lists and satellite maps. After plotting each flight path, a separate team launches the drones more than 200 kilometers (125 miles) away. Control then shifts to the Kharkiv pilots, who fly the aircraft for up to four hours, reaching more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) behind Russian lines.
Some pilots were forced from their hometowns by Russia’s invasion and now find themselves peering down at familiar streets through a drone’s camera — passing old schools and childhood neighborhoods as they search for hidden Russian troops and weapons caches.
A whiteboard in the unit tracks an ongoing competition among its 10 drone crews. The current record stands at 17 consecutive successful strikes.
Missing a high-value target leaves a mark too. After one such miss, brigade commander Col. Kyrylo Veres got on the line with the crew and asked bluntly: “Are you drunk?”
Some days the camera reveals little more than a fuel truck or a single soldier on a motorcycle. Other days, operators spot more significant targets — a loaded multiple rocket launcher or a gathering of Russian troops.
Among the unit’s top pilots is Pharaon, 20, who says the work feels like a natural extension of the video games he grew up playing.
“When I was a kid, I used to go to computer clubs where we played Counter-Strike over a local network,” he said. “The competition here is pretty much the same. It’s about who can kill more enemy troops or take out the biggest target.”
A major turning point came earlier this year when SpaceX cut off Russian forces’ unauthorized use of Starlink satellite services, disrupting Russian drone operations and communications. That shift gave Ukraine a significant advantage, allowing its upgraded drones to better evade detection, resist jamming and strike with greater accuracy while Russia scrambled to respond.
“The blocking of Starlink for Russian forces was one of the most significant battlefield developments of the year,” said Rob Lee, a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia Program.
Pharaon said the impact on mission success has been dramatic. “What’s changed is that now eight out of every 10 sorties are successful,” he said, noting that just a few months ago the success rate was the reverse.
K-2 operates the Dart, one of the more affordable drones in Ukraine’s growing midrange fleet. Built from polystyrene, wood and 3D-printed components, the Dart is designed primarily to hit Russian logistics convoys. Larger models, such as the Hornet, carry heavier payloads and are used to strike bridges and other infrastructure.
Before each mission, crews inspect batteries, cameras, flight controllers and the Starlink terminal — the most critical piece of equipment keeping the drone connected during flight. The drones are then transported to hidden launch sites near the front, where a soldier with the call sign Buckwheat checks each Starlink connection before the aircraft are catapulted into the air.
“It’s gotten a little quieter now. You can tell the pressure from the enemy has eased,” Buckwheat said.
Russian forces were caught off guard when the campaign ramped up three months ago. Since then, they have begun deploying mobile fire groups and other countermeasures to intercept the drones. But Ukraine’s speed, scale and element of surprise have so far kept it ahead.
Bendett pointed to coordination problems within the Russian military as a key vulnerability. Even if one sector identifies the drone threat, that information may not reach neighboring units in time to intercept the aircraft.
Ukraine’s campaign targets the major highways connecting occupied Mariupol, Berdyansk, Melitopol and the Crimean Peninsula — the primary supply arteries for Russian forces fighting in southern and eastern Ukraine. Commanders say the sustained strikes have pushed Russia onto slower, less efficient resupply routes.
Ukrainian military intelligence says the drones have made portions of the land corridor linking Russia to Crimea too hazardous for normal operations, slowing the movement of fuel, ammunition and reinforcements.
In response, Russia is “significantly increasing the number of their mobile anti-aircraft units and fixed machine-gun positions, and are deploying more interceptor crews near major cities,” Pharaon said. Drone pilots now plan their routes around known enemy positions and can sometimes see the flashes of anti-aircraft fire through their cameras as their aircraft slips past.
Lee said Russia has been testing electronic warfare systems against Starlink since 2024 and has now begun deploying them more broadly. So far, their effectiveness has been limited.
“I think they have some success, but we’ll have to wait and see,” he said.
