Ukrainian drones knocked out 12 electrical substations and one gas distribution station in occupied territory over 48 hours on 1 and 2 July, according to a statement from Robert “Madyar” Brovdi, commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces. Most of the sites were in Crimea. Others lay in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
Brovdi’s list names strikes by different units. Crimea took the bulk: the 35 kV Ozernenska substation in Karyerne, the 110 kV Rodnykove substation in Arkadiivka, the 220 kV Donuzlav substation in Krylovka and the 220 kV Feodosiiska substation in Feodosia, among others. The largest was the 330 kV Zakhidno-Krymska substation, hit jointly by the Phoenix group of the State Border Guard Service and the 412th Separate Regiment, known as Nemesis. In Donetsk region, a substation at the Starobesheve Thermal Power Plant was struck. In Luhansk region, units hit a gas distribution station in Aidar and a substation in Tymonove. A fuel and lubricants depot in Melitopol was also on the list.
Brovdi commented on social media: “The night is so moonlit, starry, clear. Moscow will fall.”
A refinery on fire
The strikes came after a deep-penetration drone attack on the night of 2 July on an oil refinery in Kstovo, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, about 800 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. It caused a major fire at a site close to another facility of strategic value to the Russian military. According to United24 Media, Ukrainian forces have previously hit eight of Russia’s ten largest oil refineries, several of them more than once.
The long-range war, as seen in September
A Guardian report from 24 September described how routine such raids have become. On a rainy night, crews from Ukraine’s 413 Raid drone regiment lined up Fire Point FP-2 aircraft, small monoplanes with a 6-metre wingspan and more than 100kg of explosive, for a mission into occupied Luhansk more than 200 miles away. A commander who goes by Skipper said that where one crew once flew two missions a week, “we can do 10 times more, or even more.”
A big strike can involve up to 300 drones, and the goal is 1,000 in a night, with cheap decoys finding an air corridor for the final target. The $75,000 FP-1 has reached targets 1,800 miles inside Russia. The International Energy Agency’s figures, as the Guardian cited them, show Russian crude production down 7.7% in a year. A strike on 20 September disabled the Moscow refinery, about 300 miles from the border.
Sidharth Kaushal of the Royal United Services Institute said: “Both sides are getting better at translating deep strikes into economic effects.” He added that Russia has more varied long-range weapons, more air defence and “more slack as a society.”
Russia has adapted. Since May, jet-powered Geran-4 and Geran-5 drones have raised interception difficulty, and Ukraine’s interception rate against Shahed-type drones has fallen from over 90% to 60%. Skipper said that “since June, July, they are just hiding,” pointing to better Russian jamming. The UN counts 2,222 killed in Ukraine in the first eight months of 2026, more than in all of 2025.
Sources
- Ukrainian Forces Target Russian Energy Grid Striking 12 Substations in 48 Hours
- The long-range drone war: Ukraine and Russia scramble for supremacy in the skies
