Ukraine’s drone campaign is increasingly aimed at dismantling Russia’s rear defenses, with operators reporting nearly 200 air-defense assets hit this year and 31 more taken out in June alone.

Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces say their operators have struck 194 elements of Russia’s integrated air defense network since the start of 2026, including 31 targets in June alone, according to a report published June 29.

The article also notes that since the Unmanned Systems Forces became a separate branch of Ukraine’s Armed Forces on June 11, 2025, their operators have struck 276 Russian air defense assets in total.

The tally includes 169 surface-to-air missile systems and self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, 76 radar stations, and 31 electronic warfare systems. It also reports strikes on 426 mobile radar systems and 3,838 mobile electronic warfare systems—assets described as providing local protection for military sites, logistics hubs, fuel depots, and other targets behind the front, rather than forming part of Russia’s main integrated air defense network.

The campaign is described as strategically important because Russia’s rear areas are protected by overlapping layers of radars, missile systems, and jammers. Knocking out launchers, radars, or electronic-warfare systems is said to create gaps in that shield and make subsequent deep strikes easier.

The report says Ukrainian units continued targeting Russian air defense, fuel infrastructure, and military logistics between June 27 and June 29, with strikes coordinated through the USF Deep Strike Center.

In temporarily occupied Crimea, operators of the 1st Separate Unmanned Systems Center reportedly struck a Pantsir-S1 air defense system, an ST-68 radar, and a 48Ya6-K1 Podlyot radar. The article also references strikes on a “Kasta” radar station and a “Orion” UAV in other parts of Crimea, along with fuel-related targets.

In the Zaporizhzhia region, the same brigade is described as hitting a fuel and lubricants storage facility and two Russian fuel tankers. Additional fuel-tanker strikes are also attributed to other Ukrainian drone units, including a brigade mentioned in the Magyar’s Birds unit.

In Russia’s Bryansk region, operators are said to have struck a locomotive supporting Russian military logistics.

The piece frames these attacks as part of a wider Ukrainian effort to dismantle the systems that sustain Russia’s war—especially air defenses, fuel supplies, rail links, and logistics nodes—while highlighting Crimea as a key focus due to its role as a major Russian supply hub and launch area.