Russian Military Shifts Tactics to FPV Drones in Ukraine

The Military of Russia is shifting its tactical doctrine away from a traditional reliance on massed artillery and armored tanks in favor of First-Person View (FPV) drones. This transition responds to Ukrainian kill zones extending 10 to 30 kilometers from front lines, which have rendered Russian armor and artillery systems increasingly vulnerable.

In the Donetsk region, Russian forces are launching thousands of FPV drones daily to suppress Ukrainian positions, with approximately 1,500 drones deployed around Druzhkivka and 1,200 around Dobropillia. To facilitate this shift, Russia is reorganizing its force structure in the northern Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts by disbanding certain tank battalions and reallocating personnel to dismounted assault and drone units.

While this adaptation allows Russia to maintain a fires-heavy approach with lower risk to expensive weapons systems, the Institute for the Study of War reports that these tactics have not yet produced confirmed territorial advances in the Druzhkivka and Dobropillia sectors.