Ukraine Expands Crimea Campaign as Drone Chief Vows to Cripple Russian Military Hub

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Ukraine is intensifying a drone campaign designed to weaken Russia's military infrastructure in Crimea and eventually make the peninsula unusable as a staging ground for Russian forces, the commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces told The Associated Press.

Maj. Robert "Magyar" Brovdi, one of Ukraine's most prominent drone commanders, said in an interview with AP that recent strikes against Russian military assets in Crimea represent only the beginning of a broader campaign. He said Ukrainian forces could conduct significantly more attacks if Western financial support reaches Ukrainian manufacturers and military units more quickly.

"Crimea falls within the key conceptual pillars on the path to ending the war," Brovdi told AP, according to a report by Associated Press journalist Hanna Arhirova published Monday.

The campaign reflects Kyiv's growing reliance on long-range drones and precision strikes to disrupt Russian logistics, air defenses, energy infrastructure and military facilities without attempting a conventional ground assault on the peninsula.

Crimea emerges as a strategic battlefield

Crimea has been central to Russia's military operations since Moscow seized and annexed the peninsula in 2014, a move widely condemned internationally. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the territory has served as a major logistical and military hub for Russian forces operating in southern Ukraine.

According to AP, Ukraine's summer campaign has targeted rail bridges, fuel depots and power infrastructure in an effort to disrupt Russian supply routes and weaken the defenses protecting military installations.

Brovdi said his forces are currently operating at only about 14 percent of the level required to conduct the campaign at full capacity. He attributed the shortfall primarily to delays in financing rather than a lack of Ukrainian manufacturing capacity.

"It's the banal problem of untimely financing," Brovdi said, referring to Western funding that he said arrives considerably more slowly than Ukrainian military plans require.

The commander said additional funding could allow Ukraine to strike as many as seven times more military targets in Crimea.

The AP report cautioned that several of Brovdi's battlefield claims could not be independently verified.

Drones target Russian air defenses

A central element of Ukraine's strategy is the systematic degradation of Russian air defenses, which Kyiv views as necessary to create openings for subsequent drone attacks.

Brovdi said Ukrainian forces have destroyed more than 300 Russian air-defense assets in recent months, including surface-to-air missile systems, radar installations and electronic warfare equipment.

He attributed a reduction in Russian missile launches from Crimea to those attacks, saying that during four recent large-scale Russian barrages, only five missiles were launched from the peninsula. AP said it could not independently verify that claim.

The Ukrainian commander said much of Russia's older air-defense equipment relies on the local electricity network, making power infrastructure another component of the campaign.

He said the ultimate objective is not simply to destroy individual military facilities but to undermine Crimea's usefulness to the Russian military.

"Creating conditions that make it impossible for any kind of military capability … to remain there will make Crimea uninteresting ... as a military staging ground," Brovdi told AP.

Ukraine is also seeking to reduce Crimea's importance as a Russian naval base, according to the report, potentially affecting Moscow's military presence in the Black Sea and its proximity to NATO territory.

A new generation of warfare

Brovdi's rise reflects the growing importance of unmanned systems in the war. A former international grain trader, he joined Ukraine's territorial defense as a volunteer during the opening days of Russia's full-scale invasion and later commanded one of the country's leading drone brigades.

He was eventually appointed to lead the Unmanned Systems Forces, a military formation that did not exist before the current war.

His command center, AP reported, combines military technology with an unconventional workplace environment. Screens provide live battlefield imagery and operational data, while Ukrainian artwork, books and other amenities occupy parts of the underground facility.

The contrast illustrates how drone warfare has transformed battlefield operations, with software, satellite communications, real-time intelligence and rapidly produced unmanned aircraft increasingly influencing military planning.

Brovdi said Ukrainian forces can now use combinations of drones and different warheads against specific targets, depending on whether they are striking fixed infrastructure, vehicles, trains or other military assets.

He also said Ukrainian forces seek to avoid civilian infrastructure, although the campaign has affected electricity supplies in parts of Crimea. Brovdi has publicly apologized to residents over those disruptions, according to AP.

Russia adapts to Ukraine's drone campaign

The campaign is also prompting countermeasures from Moscow.

Brovdi said Russia is expanding the deployment of electronic jamming systems designed to interfere with Starlink satellite communications, which have played an important role in Ukraine’s battlefield connectivity.

He also warned that Russia is developing its own satellite communications capabilities.

At the same time, Ukraine faces a growing missile and drone threat from Russia. Brovdi said the number of jet-powered Shahed drones being used by Russian forces has risen sharply in recent weeks and warned that Moscow is increasing its capacity to launch simultaneous missile salvos.

He estimated that Russia can currently launch as many as 77 ballistic and cruise missiles simultaneously and is seeking to raise that figure to 200.

That poses a serious challenge for Ukraine, which remains dependent on limited stocks of Western air-defense interceptors, particularly Patriot systems capable of engaging ballistic missiles.

Brovdi argued that Ukraine therefore needs to strike deeper into Russia to disrupt the production facilities responsible for manufacturing missiles and drones.

Kyiv widens targets beyond the battlefield

The broader Ukrainian campaign extends beyond conventional military infrastructure.

Brovdi identified Wildberries, Russia's largest online marketplace, as another Ukrainian target. He described the company as a major supply platform for Russia's military, while the Kremlin has rejected that characterization and accused Ukraine of attacking civilian infrastructure.

According to AP, Brovdi said the strikes are intended not only to disrupt supplies but also to make the consequences of the war more visible to ordinary Russians.

He declined to provide a timeline for the campaign, saying the attacks would continue until the targeted facilities could no longer recover quickly.

The strategy reflects a broader Ukrainian calculation: if Russia's military infrastructure, logistics networks and economic support systems can be placed under sustained pressure, Moscow's ability to maintain the war could gradually weaken.

A campaign with limits

Ukraine's effort to reshape the battlefield in Crimea comes as both sides continue adapting to an increasingly technology-driven conflict.

For Kyiv, the peninsula represents a particularly important target because of its geographic position and longstanding role in Russian military operations. But the campaign also exposes Ukraine's own vulnerabilities, including shortages of air-defense interceptors, funding delays and the need to continually overcome Russian electronic warfare.

Brovdi's assessment is therefore both an expression of confidence and a warning that Ukraine's ability to expand the campaign depends heavily on external support.

The broader objective remains ambitious: to transform Crimea from a Russian military platform into an increasingly costly and difficult position to sustain.

Whether Ukraine can achieve that objective will depend not only on the effectiveness of its drones, but also on Russia's ability to adapt, the flow of Western military assistance and the capacity of both sides to sustain a long war in which technology and industrial production are becoming as important as territory.