Where are the targets? Ukraine’s drone forces missing quotas due to lack of Russian soldiers

Russian losses in Ukraine are unfathomable.

It is unknown escactly how many casualties, the Russian forces have suffered in the more than four years of war, but according to estimates from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the losses in personnel alone amounts to more than 1.3 million.

A big factor in Ukraine’s defense has been the use of drones, especially Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and in the beginning of the year, Ukraine announced that they had a new elimination target: 50,000 Russian troops each month.

So how is that goal doing?

Over 30,000 casualties per month

In a speech delivered April 29, the UK Senior Military Advisor, Colonel Joby Rimmer, said that Russia has lost more than 30,000 troops on average each month in 2026 so far.

The total losses in 2025 was 420,000, averaging 35,000 per month.

This sounds like things are going in the wrong direction, but there might be a simple explanation.

Because in order to reach a certain quota of eliminations, you have to have targets.

Not so many enemies

In a blog post, published on Facebook on April 30, Sergei “Flash” Beskrestnov, who holds the post of advisor to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, wrote:

“Right now, the unmanned units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces aren’t fulfilling their assigned elimination plans: there are drones, but not so many enemies,” the advisor explained.

He did not provide any evidence for that assessment, but given that Russia is reportedly losing more troops than they are able to recruit, it sounds like a plausible explanation.

And the fact that the unmanned units of the Ukrainian forces are doing so well means, that “Flash” is not worried about a possible Russian mobilization either.

“War has changed a long time ago… Any tank or vehicle won’t last more than an hour on the battlefield. Drones will destroy them,” he writes.

Sources: CNN, Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, UG Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, blog post on Facebook by Sergei “Flash” Beskrestnov

This article is made and published by Jens Asbjørn Bogen, who may have used AI in the preparation