KYIV, Ukraine — In early March, an American-made reconnaissance aircraft glided above Ukraine’s choppy Black Sea waters, scanning for Russian targets below. As it approached a gas field just off Ukraine’s southern coast, operators monitoring the feed saw what appeared to be Russian soldiers and military equipment on top of an oil rig.
Calling in a fleet of sea drones, Ukraine’s navy began firing on the rig. When a nearby Russian Ka-27 helicopter landed to evacuate personnel and equipment, a Ukrainian aerial drone swooped down, exploding on contact with the aircraft.
The engagement cost Russia over $1.5 million in military equipment, and according to Ukraine’s navy, destroyed a key Russian platform for strikes into neighboring Ukrainian regions. It was one early example of a more aggressive Ukrainian strategy to use longer-range strike drones to deplete Russia’s resources.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has since declared a 40-day “influence operation” that expires in early August to coerce Russia into ending its war.
The reconnaissance aircraft that spotted the oil rig — a long-range surveillance drone known as the “V-BAT,” manufactured by the American defense firm Shield AI — has played an increasingly important role in this campaign.
“We focus on targets that are expensive, strategically valuable, or difficult to replace,” a Ukrainian naval V-BAT operator, who goes by the call sign “Negative,” said.
The drones’ reconnaissance flights deep inside Russia have allowed Kyiv to expand its strikes targeting military, energy and logistics infrastructure.
“One of its biggest advantages is its range,” the drone operator said. “Because the V-BAT can observe from long range, we’re able to confirm what’s there, collect detailed imagery, and provide intelligence without getting too close to the target.”
In June, Ukraine nearly doubled its strikes more than 30 miles beyond Russia’s front lines, according to Ukrainian Minister of Defense Mikhailo Fedorov.
The strike campaign in and around the Black Sea has been especially effective. On Tuesday night, Ukraine’s military struck nine oil tankers in the Black Sea, operating as part of Russia’s shadow fleet. Last month, Russian officials suspended gas sales to civilians in Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula occupied by Russia since 2014.
Fedorov said his drones will soon turn Crimea “into an island,” isolating it from Russia’s mainland.
The strategy’s success might have seemed unthinkable a year ago. In March 2025, the U.S. stopped providing certain forms of intelligence for Ukraine to strike inside Russia, forcing Kyiv to turn to other partners.
French President Emmanuel Macron said in January that two-thirds of the intelligence Ukraine receives now comes from France.
“With the United States stepping back, we have obviously started to try to engage European countries more,” Taras Chmut, a defense expert with Ukraine’s Come Back Alive Foundation, said in an interview earlier this year. “They may be somewhat more technologically limited, but they are faster in making decisions than the Americans.”
Reconnaissance drones have also helped fill the void. Ukrainian manufacturers have increased the range of their own surveillance aircraft by equipping them with Starlink terminals. But operators say the V-BAT offers unique capabilities.
“We use a few other systems, but none of them offer the same range as the V-BAT. They can’t compete with it in terms of endurance or communications,” Negative, the drone operator, said.
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The intelligence the aircraft provides is crucial not only for selecting targets but also for identifying Russian air defenses that stand in the way, experts say. According to Fabian Hoffman, a Ukrainian defense expert, one of the key reasons for Ukraine’s recent successes striking deep into Russia is a yearslong “shaping campaign” that has taken out Russian air defense assets.
Ukrainian officials say the V-BAT has helped identify the location of Russia’s more expensive air defenses, such as its S-400 systems. The aircraft also has AI software on board that programs its routes based on the locations of known Russian air defenses.
Shield AI employees in Ukraine say the data and feedback they receive for the drones’ missions is crucial to their aircraft and software, which require constant improvements. According to a Reuters investigation earlier this year, the V-BAT has crashed more than 50 times over the past 18 months in flights across the world.
Operators in Ukraine say the wartime environment is the only place where necessary changes can be made.
“For example, if Russian electronic warfare begins operating on a particular frequency, our operators report that information. When those frequencies change, we receive new reports and adjust,” Alex, a Ukrainian veteran and Shield AI field operator, said. “That information is important because it allows us to understand how we need to update the aircraft.”
Ukrainian soldiers, who are adapting technology at a pace few peacetime militaries can match, said they hope more American companies will develop technologies alongside them.
“We are working all the time as a team. We go into the field and get the important information we need for us and they are receiving information that they need to update the aircraft itself,” Negative, the drone operator, said. “So it improves both them and us.”