The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, summarized the results of the drone units’ operations in 2025, noting a significant increase in the effectiveness and impact of drones on the battlefield.
This is reported by Kyiv24
High Enemy Losses and the Growing Role of Drones
According to Syrskyi, December 2025 was a landmark month for the drone units of the Defense Forces. During this period, Ukrainian drones managed to neutralize approximately as many soldiers of the occupying army as Russia mobilizes in a month. He emphasized that confirmed enemy losses exceeded 33,000 personnel, and this figure only includes cases documented on video, with actual losses likely being even higher.
“The enemy has lost over 33,000 personnel. This number includes only confirmed video cases, but the actual losses of the occupiers are greater,” he stated.
The Russian Federation does not officially disclose its losses. The last time Moscow published the number of casualties was in September 2022, when it reported 5,937 personnel.
Plans for 2026 and Challenges from the Russian Federation
Oleksandr Syrskyi stressed that 2025 was a year of significant breakthroughs in the development of drone systems, and further capacity building for the units is already planned for 2026. He shared that these tasks were discussed with the commanders of the leading drone units of the Defense Forces.
At the same time, the Russian army is also increasing its capabilities in the field of drones. Last year, Russia established separate drone forces, which currently number about 80,000 military personnel. According to military intelligence, this number is expected to increase to 165,500 by 2026 and nearly 210,000 by 2030. Additionally, state orders for the production of long-range drones in Russia have been fulfilled at 106% over the year, and the Russian military-industrial complex produces over 400 such drones daily.
Given the growing threat, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine identified the formation of special units as a priority, which will effectively detect and destroy the enemy’s high-tech drone units, command posts, and crews of unmanned aerial systems. He emphasized that superiority in the quantity and quality of drones allows for the preservation of more of one’s own personnel and more effective destruction of the enemy.
Syrskyi also noted that the Ukrainian army maintains leadership in the number of deployed FPV drones. In December 2025, the drone units completed approximately 339,000 tasks, while ground robotic complexes executed nearly 2,100. The total number of targets hit or destroyed by the Defense Forces’ drones increased by 31%, while the number of enemy personnel affected rose by more than a quarter.
Earlier, the Drone Forces Group reported that over 168,000 Russian targets had been hit in seven months, with an estimated value reaching 20 billion dollars.