A Sting interceptor costs around $2,500. By comparison, a single US-made Patriot interceptor missile, used for a similar defensive purpose, costs more than $3 million and requires far more time, infrastructure and resources to build and operate.
Ukraine as a drone superpower
Casualty estimates vary, but one recent CSIS-backed estimate puts Russian casualties at around 1.2 million and Ukrainian casualties at up to 600,000 since the start of Russia’s full-scale war.
Russia’s population, at roughly 140 million, is three times larger than Ukraine’s pre-war population of around 40 million. Ukraine, therefore, cannot close this gap with manpower alone. So, it has to close it through technology.
At an April event marking Ukraine’s Gunsmith Day, Zelenskyy flexed the country’s military muscles by presenting more than 30 types of drones, highlighting how central unmanned systems have become to Ukraine’s war strategy.
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First-person view drones, more commonly known by their acronym FPV, production illustrates this shift. Ukraine’s annual FPV drone output rose from roughly 5,000 units in 2022 to around three million in 2025.
By early 2026, Ukraine’s defence industry had the capacity to produce more than eight million FPV drones annually, making it a drone superpower.
The mass use of drones is no longer limited to air defence. It now also shapes offensive ground operations.
FPV drones, small, agile aircraft controlled remotely through headsets that stream live video from onboard cameras, allow a single operator to guide a drone precisely onto a target.
With each drone costing between $300 and $400, they have offered Ukraine a partial answer to its artillery ammunition shortage.
Ukraine’s domestically produced long-range unmanned systems also allow Kiev to strike targets deep inside Russia without needing permission from Western allies, who are sometimes reluctant to authorise the use of their supplied weapons for attacks inside Russian territory.
Besides, Kiev is now able to produce its own cruise missile, Flamingo, with a range of up to 3,000 km, even longer than its American counterpart, Tomahawk.
From asking for help to offering it
Not long ago, US President Donald Trump told Zelenskyy in the Oval Office that Ukraine did not “have the cards,” in a moment widely seen as humiliating for Kiev.
The situation now looks different. The US, which halted military and financial assistance to Ukraine under Trump, asked Kiev for support in protecting US bases in the Gulf against Iranian retaliatory strikes.
The war is no longer only about territory. It is increasingly about technological adaptation, economic endurance and the ability to impose costs far from the front line.
If Ukraine can sustain attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure at this scale, the pressure on Moscow will grow.
Public frustration may increase, economic pain will deepen, and Russia could eventually be forced to reconsider some of the gains it has paid heavily for on the battlefield. And this might give some real momentum to the negotiations between the sides which stalled for a while.
