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Ukraine’s Escalating Drones

One step forward

Shankar Narayan
8 min readSep 1, 2023
A drone flying into the sunset (Licensed Image)

“What is happening? What is happening?” Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov repeated into the camera over and over. “Do we not know where the drones are flying from? What is happening? Do we not understand where they’re being manufactured, delivered and stockpiled? Where they’re launched from? If we can’t cope with drones, how are we going to cope with F-16s?”

Vladimir Solovyov couldn’t get himself to accept the reality that Ukraine had carried out a drone strike on Pskov air base, situated 370 kilometers from the closest Ukrainian border, resulting in the destruction of four IL-76 aircraft, each valued at over $50 million. Given these substantial losses, I can comprehend Vladimir Solovyov’s evident frustration.

Hits running up the dial all the way to $200 million aren't cheap.

It’s not been long since I mentioned that the 42-drone attack launched by Ukraine in Crimea few days ago wouldn’t stay the largest for much time. The strike on Pskov air base seems to be one of the most impactful incidents lately because those four aircraft are now out of service. The ink is barely dry from my last comment, but things are changing rapidly.

“Yes, four IL-76 transport planes were destroyed in Pskov at an airfield, they are beyond repair. Also, several other of those…

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Shankar Narayan
Shankar Narayan

Written by Shankar Narayan

He didn't care what he had or what he had left, he cared only about what he must do.

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