Ahead of possible ceasefire talks, Ukraine endured another night of Russia’s relentless barrage of aerial attacks as Moscow unleashed over 450 drones and missiles on the country.
This marked the sixth time in July when Russia launched over 400 drones and missiles on Ukraine, which is currently facing a critical shortage of air defense missiles.
The nearly three-and-a-half-year-old war has entered a new, dangerous phase where Russia is normalizing the launch of hundreds of drones and missiles, night after night.
Earlier in July, when Russia launched 728 drones and missiles on a single night, setting a new record in the 40-month-old war, many analysts dismissed it as an exception. However, as July progressed, it became apparent that this would be the new normal in the Ukraine war.
Over the last three months, there has been a marked escalation in the frequency of Russian aerial attacks on Ukraine, underlying Russia’s increased production and supply of drones, which are fast replacing bullets and artillery in the war.
Amid this escalation, Russia offered a rare peek inside its Yelabuga drone factory. The video, shared by the Russian defense ministry, is further proof that Moscow is increasingly confident in its drone production capabilities.
The video can also be interpreted as a thinly veiled warning to Ukraine, in particular, and the West in general, that Russia’s drone production capacity and its ability to scale drone manufacturing are unmatched and can not be competed with.
The Yelabuga Factory: World’s Biggest Drone Manufacturing Hub
The Yelabuga drone factory, located in the central Russian region of Tatarstan, is approximately 1,100 km (620 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
Ironically, the factory represents everything that is wrong with Russia’s war economy and also why even the combined might of NATO may not be enough to defeat Russia.
The town of Yelabuga was initially planned to be a special economic zone designed to boost science and business in the region. Now, it produces hundreds of kamikaze drones every day to be used as mass aerial bombardment on Ukrainian cities.
Russia boasts that this is the world’s biggest drone factory. The footage, recorded by Zvezda, the Russian defense ministry’s TV channel, is the first detailed look inside the plant.
The grisly video shows rows and rows of matt-black “Geran-2” drones, the Russian-built version of the Iranian-designed Shahed 136. The matt-black paint on all drones seems to suggest Russia’s new focus on night-time attacks.
The video allegedly shows scores of teenagers working at the drone factory.
“Everywhere you look, there’s young people working here,” the voice-over says in the video.
Inside Russia’s Geran-2 drone factory in Tatarstan
Rare footage reveals the Alabuga plant’s mass production of tens of thousands of deadly kamikaze drones
Designed to attack in relentless swarms — 'Gerans' punch through Ukraine’s defenses — outmaneuvering even F-16s pic.twitter.com/5bghxrtRPl
— RT (@RT_com) July 20, 2025
The video appears to show the factory’s in-house production facilities, featuring footage of metal foundries, a blacksmith’s workshop, as well as assembly stations and testing facilities.
Drone Saturation: How Russia Scaled Drone Production
The background voice in the video states that President Putin aims to establish such factories nationwide to increase drone production manifold.
Russia is already producing 5,000 long-range drones every month. The Yelabuga factory alone is believed to have produced over 18,000 Geran-2 drones in the first six months of 2025.
However, analysts warn that Russia can further scale its drone production in the coming months.
The increased drone production is manifesting itself on the Ukrainian front and in Ukrainian cities every night.
In the last 45 days, Russia has launched more than 400 drones nine times. In July itself, Russia has launched over 400 drones six times.
- July 4: Russia launched 539 drones and 11 missiles.
- July 9: Russia launched a record 728 drones and 13 missiles, targeting cities across Ukraine, particularly Lutsk.
- July 10: Russia launched 415 aerial attacks, including 397 attack drones and 18 missiles, primarily targeting Kyiv.
- July 12: Russia launched 597 drones and decoys, along with 26 cruise missiles, targeting western cities like Lviv, Lutsk, and Chernivtsi.
- July 16: Russia launched 400 drones and one ballistic missile, targeting Kryvyi Rih, Vinnytsia, Odesa, and Kharkiv.
- July 21: Russia launched 400 drones and missiles.
So far in July, Russia has launched a total of 4,929 drones and 148 missiles into Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s air force, at an average of around 234 drones and seven missiles each day.
June saw 5,438 drones and 239 missiles fired into Ukraine, with a daily average of 181 drones and nearly eight missiles.
And in May, Russia launched a total of 3,835 drones and 117 missiles, for an average of around 124 drones and nearly four missiles each day.
In the past two months, Russia has nearly doubled its daily drone barrage on Ukraine.
According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russia’s use of one-way attack drones in nightly strike packages grew at an average monthly rate of 31 percent in both June and July 2025.
Russia Could Launch 2,000 Drones Every Night
The daily bombardment of Ukrainian cities with Geran-2 drones has already lasted longer than the infamous Blitz aerial bombing of London during World War II and shows no signs of letting up.
In fact, if Western intelligence is to be believed, then Russia will significantly increase the frequency of its daily drone attacks in the coming months.
The head of the German Ministry of Defense’s Planning and Command Staff, Major General Christian Freuding, said on July 19 that Russia plans to increase further its drone production capacity to launch 2,000 drones in one overnight strike package against Ukraine.
Separately, ISW also assessed that Russia may be able to launch up to 2,000 drones in one night by November 2025, assuming the current growth trend in drone usage continues.
Drone Attacks: A New Psychological Warfare
Security analysts warn that behind Russia’s dramatic increase in daily drone attacks lies a calculated strategy of breaking the morale of the Ukrainian armed forces, terrorising the civilian population, and breaking the Western support for Kyiv.
The ISW assessed that the drone attacks are meant to psychologically exhaust Ukraine and erode Western support.
Similarly, a new report by the Lowy Institute warns that with President Vladimir Putin frustrated by a stalled summer offensive, his focus has turned to breaking Western and Ukrainian morale with barrages of drone strikes at civilian targets.
US President Donald Trump has agreed to supply Ukraine with Patriot Air Defense systems on an urgent basis. However, the Patriots may not be sufficient in tackling this new Russian threat.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), “Russia’s relentless use of low-cost drones signals a broader shift toward attrition warfare based on overwhelming air defense systems with sheer numbers. Western governments must innovate in economical defenses and tackle Chinese technology flows fueling Russian drone production.”
While effective against ballistic missiles, using multi-million-dollar Patriot interceptors to shoot down drones worth only tens of thousands of dollars is economically unsustainable.
It appears that the next frontier in this technological race is the development of cheap and scalable drone interceptors.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
- VIEWS PERSONAL OF THE AUTHOR.
- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
