Deep-strike drones are hitting Russia’s military core

Ukraine’s drone program isn’t just about defense anymore, it’s taking the fight deep into Russia’s economic and military heartland. Throughout 2024 and into 2025, long-range drones have hit oil refineries, munitions plants, radar stations, and airfields hundreds of kilometers inside Russian territory, including in places like Tatarstan, Krasnodar, and even the outskirts of Moscow.

Some of the most painful strikes have been on oil refineries, a key pillar of Russia’s war economy. These attacks have disrupted fuel exports, forced shutdowns at major processing facilities, and exposed just how vulnerable Russia’s energy sector is to cheap, precise, and uncrewed weapons.

Ukraine is steadily expanding its arsenal of long-range systems. The Batyar drone, revealed in April 2025, has an 800-kilometer range and can carry a 3kg warhead to hit targets deep behind enemy lines 

The BARS drone missile, unveiled earlier this year, can travel up to 500 miles (about 800 km) and strike industrial and military targets with precision.

And it’s not just drones. Ukraine’s growing family of homemade missile systems—like Neptune, Palianytsia, Peklo, and Ruta—has expanded Kyiv’s strike capability even further, reaching targets Russia once considered out of range

In response, Moscow has started building new munitions factories in remote parts of Siberia, hoping to keep them out of drone range. Because of Ukraine’s technological cunning, the Kremlin is reshaping its industrial geography to survive a war it thought would be fought on someone else’s land.