The Future of Drone Tech: Long-Range Strikes || May 29, 2026
Ukraine has ramped up its long-range drone program, allowing it to strike targets up to 1,800 kilometers away. So, what does this mean for Russia and its oil?
With Ukraine able to strike targets well into Western Russia, energy infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable. Thanks to the recent surge of foreign financial support rushing into Ukraine, drone production has ramped up. Russia might be able to shut down and restart the southern oil fields, but any fields shut down in the permafrost would take years or even decades to repair and restart.
So, expect Russian transport and export capacity to continue to drop, especially if these longer-range strikes continue throughout the summer months.
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Comments (22)
I have a Russian-American friend who grew up and still has contacts in and near Ekaterinburg, east of the Ural Mountains. She told me a couple of weeks ago that oil production infrastructure in her city was attacked by drones. Ukraine long rabe drones have been active in Russia for several weeks already.
Hard to make out through the mumbling delivery.
We're already "well" into this.
Nothing like making a country that has thousands of nuclear weapons desperate for income, huh? I bet all the military industrial complexers and the neocons like Lindsey Graham, are just about coming in their pants
Who is responsible for mowing and trimming the grass in the forum? There are all those rocks in the way!
Damn -- what a great backdrop!
Really hard to follow when viewing 1,000 years of history in the background. Seems like a metaphor?
Play pussyfoot games, win pussyfoot prizes.
What about Ukrainian petroleum? Supply? Refineries? Fuel imports? ...
The reduced number of trucks carrying it, the fact they're way behind lines and moving targets makes it easier I guess. They have friends in all the gulf countries that are in iranian drone range. So...
You mentioned rapid repairs as things got damaged. I've read that much of Russia's oil infrastructure was built by the West. If so, how is Russia able to rebuild these things so rapidly?
Oil storage tanks are easy to build. Most of the refineries are also easy to maintain and repair (cracking stations, not so much). What Peter is talking about is the oil wells themselves. Schlumberger, with its steerable drill bits, deep earth tomography to find where to drill, those areas are as much art as technology.
This illustrates the stupid versus the intelligent. Russia attacks apartment buildings and supermarkets. Yes, people suffer, but no real damage to Ukraine's ability to wage war. Ukraine attacks strategic assets and war making capabilities such as oil production and factories that produce war making materials. It makes me wonder how Russia ever became a power in the first place.
Eastern ruzzia was in range of Spider Web. A carbon fiber solar powered propeller driven drone would have a ceiling of 100,000 ft. Anything within a 100 miles of it would be a sitting duck for a daughter drone. Bye Bye ruzzian aircraft
Nonsense. Max ceiling of anything propeller driven that can actually carry a reasonable payload at a reasonable speed is at most 60K feet. And it would take a very long time to get to that altitude.
So, what are Putin's options now ? Nukes ?
Having a war going suits Putin. That's really all there is to it. Nukes come out when his seat gets too hot. The east side of the urals is on a periphery, so that's okay. As long as Moscow is promised slack, and he can hold parades, as long as he can hold on which is probably for another 3 decades including gene therapy infusions.
Interesting, the major news media has Ukraine being continuously crushed via Russian drone and missile attacks
“…because of Iraq war…” —Peter meant Iran
@Pz I’m at the forum today too😮
Metric= km Imperial= miles Iran war, not Iraq war
Don’t sweat the small stuff. I stopped feeling the need to correct at home, and it made all the difference. I’m still married to someone way out of my league… 🥰