Ukraine has successfully prevented Russia from establishing control over its airspace, and Moscow is limited in its ability to use its considerable force of fast jets and bombers. This is stated in the latest intelligence report of the Ministry of Defense of Great Britain.
It is noted that to overcome this disadvantage, Russia has become highly dependent on the fruitful use of relatively inexpensive drones. They have been used to suppress Ukrainian air defenses and to attack both military and civilian targets beyond the range of its artillery.
On June 21, the Ukrainian Navy and the Security Service of Ukraine announced that they had struck the 726th Air Defense Training Center at Eisk Airfield in Russia. This base is one of at least five from which Russia carries out its attacks against Ukraine. The strike reportedly destroyed 120 drones of various types and injured nine personnel.
According to British intelligence, it is highly likely that in the short term these strikes will cause some disruption to Russia's ability to use drones to strike targets deep inside Ukrainian territory from these locations.
There is a real possibility that Russia will shift its drone operations to less vulnerable bases, and therefore their impact is likely to be temporary.
Ukraine is likely to use its recent successes and continue its anti-drone campaign to the detriment of Russia, the British MoD says.