There have been some panicky recent reports emanating from Russian sources about a new Ukrainian drone. The Russians call them "Martians" and the seem to be a significant upgrade over the drones that Russian forces have become used to dealing with.
Sergei ‘Zergulio’ Kolyasnikov, military correspondent for pro-Putin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, warned of a “qualitative change at the front”.
He admitted: “Ukraine has introduced a new generation [of drones], which is creating serious logistics challenges.”...
He added: “From what we currently know, these drones operate day and night, and are inaudible — except in the final seconds, when they dive….
“They are undetectable by conventional detectors and are protected from electronic warfare.
“And there’s a theory that they are controlled not by human operators, but by AI.
The Kyiv Post says there was even a story in Russia's TASS about these new drones.
No less than the official Kremlin information agency TASS, in a Wednesday news flash headlined “The AFU [Armed Forces of Ukraine] has started to use ‘Martians’ for strikes against Horlivka,” confirmed local officials had observed strikes by the new Ukrainian aircraft.
TASS cited Ivan Prikhodko, mayor of the Russia-occupied Ukrainian city of Horlivka, as an eyewitness to the new Ukrainian drone attacks.
“The enemy has begun using new drones called ‘Martians,’ which, unfortunately, have a cruising speed of up to 300 kilometers/hour [186 miles / hour], no longer fly under operator guidance but are controlled by artificial intelligence,” Prikhodko said. “They are undetectable by electronic warfare systems, and drone detectors don’t spot them.”
It is of course always hard to rely on any news reports in the midst of a war, but the general trend toward Ukrainian drone supremacy is something that has been getting a lot of attention lately, including from the Institute for the Study of War which tracks developments in the Russia-Ukraine war on a daily basis. Here's what the ISW reported last Wednesday:
[Ukrainian Presidential Office Deputy Head Colonel Pavlo Palisa] reported that Ukrainian forces have broadly regained numerical drone superiority over Russian forces on the frontline and now have 1.3 strike drones to every one Russian strike drone. Palisa noted that Russian forces do maintain the quantitative advantage in some areas where they are concentrating offensive operations, however. Palisa added that 32 percent of Ukrainian drones are electronic warfare (EW)-resistant fiber-optic drones, compared to 24 percent of Russian drones. Palisa also noted that Ukraine’s mid-range strike campaign against Russian drone launch sites and infrastructure, including strikes against occupied Donetsk City Airport and drone repeaters in occupied Crimea, has prevented Russian forces from launching ”up to 1,000 drones” simultaneously and has forced Russian forces to stagger drone launches throughout the day. Ukraine’s defensive successes, drone adaptations, and mid-range strike campaign are evidently creating compounding effects which are degrading both Russian frontline forces and Russia’s long-range strike campaign.
The next day (last Thrusday) ISW had a follow up:
Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi reported on April 9 that Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces perform over 11,000 combat missions per day and struck over 150,000 verified targets in March 2026 alone — up 50 percent from February 2026.[3] Syrskyi stated that Ukrainian forces conducted over 350 mid-range strikes, including against 143 Russian logistics facilities and warehouses, 52 command posts, and 20 oil and energy infrastructure facilities...
A Russian milblogger also claimed on March 12 that Ukrainian forces operating near the eastern junction of Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia oblasts — the site of recent successful Ukrainian counterattacks — were simultaneously using 300 to 400 drones deployed to a depth of 20 kilometers to strike Russian forces...
Russian officials have repeatedly attempted to advance a false narrative that Ukraine’s frontline and political stability are on the verge of collapse in an effort to convince the West to capitulate to Russian demands that Russia cannot secure militarily.[7] Recent evidence suggests that not only are Russian forces facing setbacks on the battlefield, but also that recent Ukrainian drone innovations have shifted the battlefield advantage in Ukraine’s favor...
A Russian milblogger citing unspecified sources reported on April 9 that Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine has a “significant” technological advantage in drone warfare on the frontlines.[12] Belousov allegedly stated that the situation is “critical” for Russian forces as Ukraine both has numerical superiority in drones and has developed a new “generation of equipment.” Belousov allegedly told Putin that Ukraine was using “more sophisticated systems” that Russian forces are “largely unprepared” to counter. The sources claimed that Belousov highlighted several issues, including that new Ukrainian drones operate “around the clock,” that the drones are “virtually inaudible” until the moment they strike, and that Russian conventional defense methods such as standard detectors and electronic warfare (EW) are ineffective against the drones.
Are these stories accurate? Again, the word of Russia military bloggers aren't always to be trusted, but these all seem like admissions against interest. None of this sounds good for Russia.
And all you have to do is look at some of the recent successes to see that something has clearly changed.
New drones have reached deep into Russian territory, and ISW said Ukraine is inflicting major damage on the Russian energy sector.
It highlighted a series of drone attacks on Novorossiysk on the Black Sea as well as on the Baltic Sea oil hubs of Primorsk and Ust-Luga, which previously handled about 45% of Russia’s seaborne crude exports.
ISW pointed to reports that the drone strikes on Primorsk burned $200 million of oil, while exports of the petrochemical naphtha from Ust-Luga fell by about 70% in the last week of March.
Here's what the oil depot in Primorsk looks like after Ukrainian drone strikes.
A set of April 1 @planet high-resolution images of oil depots in Primorsk and Ust-Luga ports, Leningrad Oblast, Russia, after a series of consecutive Ukrainian strikes. pic.twitter.com/oIO3GgizgB
— Mark Krutov (@kromark) April 2, 2026
And here's the scene in Novorossiysk:
Ukrainian drones struck key Russian oil export terminals at the port of Novorossiysk, sparking a fire at the facility. pic.twitter.com/ae00rsn4IE
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) April 5, 2026
To sum up, Ukraine seems to be showing an advantage in the kind of warfare that seems to be decisive in this war. That's not to say that Russia can't make adjustments and recover from this trend, but don't forget that Ukraine has access to Starlink and Russia does not. So it's ability to compete in the near term may be limited.
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