Taking out a Russian soldier costs twice as much as hitting the Kremlin's infrastructure, Ukraine says

Aug 18, 2026 11:50 AM - 1 hour ago 1

A Ukrainian worker tinkers pinch a fixed helping onslaught drone.

A Ukrainian worker prepares the Bliskavka onslaught drone successful Donetsk. Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu via Getty Images

Ukraine has calculated the mean costs of its drone onslaught missions against Russia, and sidesplitting aliases wounding unit ranks astatine the top.

The Ukrainian defense ministry said connected Monday that, successful June, striking a Russian serviceman costs its forces $3,032.

Attacking 1 portion of Russian instrumentality costs $2,674, while hitting an infrastructure installation costs $1,487 — little than half the value of striking a soldier, per ministry figures.

The announced costs comes arsenic Ukraine has pursued making its drone attacks much cost-effective complete the years. In 2024, Ukrainian troops said they spent astir $20,000 connected drones to termination 1 Russian soldier.

Western estimates opportunity Ukraine kills aliases wounds astir 30,000 Russian soldiers a month.

The ministry said its information was gathered from its Mission Control system, a integer command-and-control programme launched successful January that analyzes missions carried retired by its drone forces.

Kyiv says that the strategy collects complete 230,000 reports each week, pinch more than 50,000 missions logged truthful far.

"Mission Control made it imaginable not only to scheme and grounds missions, but besides to measure their economical efficiency," the ministry said connected Monday. "For example, successful June, each dollar spent by the Defense Forces connected strikes inflicted astir 5 dollars' worthy of losses connected Russia."

Meanwhile, the ministry estimates that it costs Russia astir $65,000 to prolong 1 work member.

"In each category, the force incurs costs respective times greater than ours," it added.

The strategy is each portion of Ukraine's effort to digitalize its fragmented, paper-based bid process and springiness commanders a synced-up operational overview of the war.

Mission Control is simply a module successful DELTA, the country's integer battlefield guidance strategy that collects information from Ukrainian drones, frontline reports, and outer intelligence. DELTA typically accepts records of a successful deed only if they're backed by video evidence; the defense ministry has said the strategy handles complete 75,000 streams a day.

Kyiv said connected Monday that the Mission Control lets drone teams log the costs of the weapons utilized successful each strike, arsenic good arsenic the costs of the Russian instrumentality they harm aliases destroy.

"This enables accelerated adjustment to changing conditions connected the beforehand line," it added.

Last month, Ukraine said its forces utilized DELTA to grounds 6,600 drone strikes a time successful June, aliases astir 200,000 drone strikes for that month.

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Matthew is simply a elder newsman astatine Business Insider's Singapore bureau, chiefly covering defense and really the warfare successful Ukraine is quickly changing conflict exertion and tactics.He joined the squad successful June 2021, antecedently focusing connected net crime and labor, examining really these issues effect modern nine successful Asia, pinch a peculiar accent connected China.In 2024, he won the Singapore Press Club's Young Journalist of the Year Award. His activity from 2023 besides won a metallic grant from the North American Travel Journalists Association and accolades from Longreads.Matthew's erstwhile activity has been featured successful the South China Morning Post, arsenic good arsenic Singaporean news companies TODAY and The Business Times.As a student, Matthew's coverage of migrant workers' nutrition successful Singapore during the COVID pandemic won the SOAP Story of the Month award and the Student Category prize successful the International Labor Organization's 2021 Global Media Competition connected Labour Migration.Selected features:

  • Death connected the Savage Mountain: What really happened connected K2, and why 100 climbers stepped complete a dying man connected their measurement to the summit
  • The atomic weapons era is making a comeback, and experts opportunity we're each not paying attention
  • How nets from a Danish sportfishing colony recovered their measurement into Ukraine's modern war
  • Inside Ukraine's title to crank retired unjammable, fiber-optic drones that tin break done Russia's physics warfare
  • Finding Dora

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