Russia intensifies FPV drone attacks in Southern Ukraine, military spox says

Russian troops significantly intensified combat operations in southern Ukraine last week, carrying out nearly 200 assault attacks and sharply increasing the use of kamikaze and FPV drones.

Vladyslav Voloshyn, Spokesperson for the Defense Forces of the South, said this in a comment to Ukrinform.

“Over the past week, there were 195 assault attacks. The enemy launched 14 attacks in the Prydniprovske sector, 31 in the Oleksandrivka sector, 10 in the Orikhiv sector, and 140 in the Huliaipole sector. Their assault activity was quite high,” Voloshyn said.

According to him, Russian forces also actively used missile weapons, aviation, and unmanned systems, significantly increasing the deployment of FPV drones in particular.

“The enemy carried out five ballistic missile strikes, targeting the Mykolaiv region three times and the Zaporizhzhia region twice. Before the so-called ceasefire, the enemy also used aviation quite actively. The number of guided aerial bombs increased by 4%, reaching 486 GAB bombs over the week,” the Spokesperson noted.

Voloshyn added that the sharpest increase was recorded in the use of FPV drones, with 13,876 strikes – nearly 60% more than the previous week. Russian forces also launched more than 70 strikes using Lancet loitering munitions.

In total, Ukraine’s Defense Forces eliminated nearly 100 Russian troops and destroyed about 440 pieces of enemy weapons and equipment over the course of the week.

As reported by Ukrinform, Russia’s total combat losses in the war against Ukraine from February 24, 2022, to May 11, 2026, amount to approximately 1,342,030 personnel, including 920 troops lost over the previous day.

Photos provided by V. Voloshyn