Ukraine’s new generation of medium-range drones has severely disrupted Russian military supply lines to the southern front, attacking bridges, trains and fuel trucks, giving Kiev a chance to derail Moscow’s summer offensive plans.
Videos and images of approximately 150 strikes against Russian fuel tankers, trucks, and other vehicles have been geolocated and analyzed by French open source analyst Clément Morin, the volunteer-run OSINT group Geoconfirmed, and CNN’s OSINT team.
There are probably many more strikes that go unrecorded.
Attacks on other targets such as port facilities and ships have also increased sharply, with most attacks occurring since early May.
The drones, which have a range of 50 to 300 kilometers, are all Ukrainian-made and designed to suppress Russian military logistics, adding a new dimension to Ukraine’s strategy as the war enters its fifth year.
Newly designed drones include the FP-2 and the Behemoth, which has a cruising speed of 180 km (110 mph) and can carry a 70 kg warhead.
“The Ukrainians now have the means to launch a large-scale drone operation to cut off Crimea from the main supply roads and complicate Russia’s logistics situation across the front lines,” Morin told CNN.
The Unmanned Systems Force, the Ukrainian military branch responsible for drone operations, said in a statement to CNN that the number of medium-range attack missions has increased 28 times over the past year.
The purpose is to limit Russia’s offensive capabilities. Create insurmountable logistics and supply problems for enemy forces. and clear out Russian air defenses in the occupied territories, opening up “corridors” for Ukrainian long-range drones.
Drone attacks have made some routes between Russia and occupied Ukraine too dangerous to use. The ripple effect is fuel and ammunition shortages for Russian front-line forces in southern Ukraine, further disrupting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s wartime goals.
Burned-out trucks and tankers litter the main road between Crimea and the city of Melitopol, which has been occupied by Russian forces since the beginning of the war, geolocation video shows. Fuel shortages continue in Crimea as well.
Mick Ryan, a former Australian military official and analyst who writes the blog Futura Doctrina, said Ukrainian drones had taken over three highways along the coast towards Crimea from the air.
“Gasoline tankers and trucks are regularly set on fire,” one Russian military blogger admitted. “The connections between the peninsula and the mainland are being severed one by one.”
Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov called it a “logistical blockade” to “systematically destroy Russia’s capabilities” and “deprive it of its ability to conduct active offensive operations” far behind the front lines.
“The enemy will no longer feel safe, even at a considerable distance from the line of contact,” Fedorov said last month.
Morin’s research suggests this strategy is working.
He said Ukraine had redefined the depth of its “kill zone” after mapping hundreds of Ukrainian military attacks extending up to 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the front lines.
Morin said “mobile weapons that fly over major routes and target Russian logistics, especially munitions and fuel trucks,” are also very effective. He added that 20 trains had been targeted since January 2026, many of them fueling trains spread across the front line.
Other researchers have observed similar patterns.
Geolocation footage from May also shows Ukrainian forces attacking at least 35 Russian trucks and other vehicles near highways in Crimea and elsewhere in southern Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
One example is the most important road route between Crimea and occupied Ukraine, which uses a bridge near the village of Chonhar. Images have been released showing a Ukrainian drone unit repeatedly attacking a bridge, leaving large holes in the road.
The Russian-backed regime in the occupied Kherson region admitted that traffic had been repeatedly stopped, bridges were replaced with inefficient pontoons, and the Chonhar River and other bridges were damaged.
Russia’s air defense forces seem unable to cope with this threat.
According to Robert Brobdy, commander of Ukraine’s unmanned forces, cargo traffic through the Chonhar Bridge has fallen by 71% in just two weeks this month.
Ukraine’s military said the targeting caused Russian forces to use a different route and sent a number of trucks carrying military supplies further west. Its route, which passes through the city of Armyansk, was also damaged.
“At that point, about 50 vehicles had gathered there,” said Dmytro Filatov, commander of Ukraine’s 1st Independent Assault Regiment.
The sustained attacks mean that another bridge connecting Russian territory to Crimea across the Kerch Strait has now become an even more important artery.
The Ukrainian attack “raised the importance of the Kerch Bridge in maintaining logistics to Crimea, and we suspect Ukraine will seek to target it with Ukrainian-made drones and missiles,” analyst Rob Lee wrote.
The Kerch road and railroad crossing, opened by President Vladimir Putin in 2018, has been the target of attacks by the Ukrainian military.
Some highways entering occupied Ukraine from Russia are currently closed to military vehicles due to the threat posed by these medium-range drones.
Russian-backed authorities in occupied Luhansk announced they would suspend traffic on two highways from Russia’s Belgorod and Rostov-on-Don, key routes for military and supplies to the occupied territories.
“Attacks on transport infrastructure in the region have become more frequent recently,” the newspaper said.
Ukraine also began targeting the port of Mariupol, a strategic and industrial center on the Sea of Azov in the occupied territory.
Ukraine’s National Guard released footage of multiple drones attacking the port area earlier this month, claiming the port was “completely cut off from electricity and Russian military logistics are severely hampered.”
Russian military bloggers are frustrated by the slow response of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Ukraine’s operations have “destroyed refineries in the south, creating fuel and logistics problems, and now the enemy is grounding civil aviation with a ‘drone caravan,'” writes Two Measures, one of the most popular bloggers.
Disabling Starlink satellite connections between Russian forces also supported the Ukraine operation.
But some analysts and Ukrainian military officials acknowledge that this advantage may not last long.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, “Ukraine likely has a unique, time-sensitive opportunity to take advantage of the current initiative while the Russian military remains vulnerable.”
Still, in Ryan’s view, the three tiers of Ukrainian drones — on the battlefield, in counter-supply lines, and deep inside Russia — “increase pressure on Russian forces, reduce strike capabilities, and shape the battlespace for future Ukrainian offensive operations.”
Russian forces in southern Ukraine have already been at a disadvantage this year, in part because of weaker supply lines compared to countries further north.
According to Ukraine’s independent analytical organization Deep State, “the ability to control all movements from the southern part of the occupied territory, especially from Crimea,” is within reach. Giving “starvation rations” to Russian troops in the south.
