President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia was ramping up drone production by around ten times to nearly 1.4 million this year in a bid to ensure the Russian armed forces win in Ukraine.
Since Russia sent tens of thousands of soldiers into Ukraine in February 2022, the war has largely been a story of grinding artillery and drone strikes along a heavily fortified 1,000-km (620-mile) front involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
The conflict has been a crucible for drone development - and an illustration of the importance of drones to modern warfare, from terrorising infantry and collecting intelligence to sabotaging infrastructure and attacking arsenals.
"In total, about 140,000 unmanned aerial vehicles of various types were delivered to the armed forces in 2023," Putin said. "This year, the production of drones is planned to increase significantly. Well, to be more precise, almost 10 times."
"Whoever reacts faster to these demands on the battlefield wins," Putin said at a meeting in St Petersburg about drone production.
Both Russia and Ukraine have bought drones abroad and ramped up their own production while drone videos have illustrated the horror of the battlefield, showing deadly strikes on infantry, artillery and tanks.
EYE IN THE SKY
Inexpensive first-person view (FPV) drones - originally developed for civilian racers - are controlled by pilots on the ground and often crash into targets, laden with explosives.
For just a few hundred dollars, soldiers on both sides can inflict vast damage on the other side. A large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on Russia triggered an earthquake-sized blast at a major arsenal in the Tver region on Wednesday.
Putin said that Russia was making almost weekly advances in drone technology and needed to also develop its drone defences, essentially technology which senses, confuses and then shoots down the attacking drones.
"The key task is to produce a wide range of aerial unmanned vehicles, to establish serial production as quickly as possible," Putin said.
