Valentyn Badrak, the director of the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies and co-founder of the Defense Information Consortium, shared these insights with Espreso TV.Unmanned systems are a key area of focus for the Russian Federation. On November 12, 2025, it was announced that Russia had established dedicated unmanned systems troops within its armed forces, following Ukraine's example. This systematic effort could present a new challenge for the Ukrainian Defense Forces.Valentyn Badrak highlights that in 2025, although the Defense Forces were outnumbered in terms of drones, they held an advantage in the creativity of their designs and operational tactics. In the realm of naval and ground-based robotic systems, the situation was one of parity or near-parity. He also notes that there are grounds to believe the Defense Forces are more effective in their use of interceptor drones.Among Russia's most significant 'breakthroughs' during this period, the expert identifies the development of 'kamikaze' drone swarms equipped with combat AI. These swarms, launched from carrier drones ('mother ships'), can attack targets up to 100 km deep. Another notable development is the Shahed drones, which can autonomously bypass air defense systems."Unfortunately, we've also had negative experiences where a well-developed domestic technology is captured by the enemy and then mass-produced. This was the case with fiber-optic guided UAVs, which first appeared in Ukraine in the summer of 2023. However, the Russian Federation was quicker to master their large-scale deployment," Badrak remarks.He recalls that Russia is constructing a 'giant drone empire,' involving 900 companies in production, 70% of which are small and medium-sized businesses."In the autumn of 2025, drones began to systematically target not only military arsenals and logistical routes but also moving vehicles," the expert notes.In November, reports also indicated that Ukraine's effectiveness in intercepting Russian Shahed drones and missiles was declining. The interception rates by Ukrainian air defense in October were the lowest of the year, with only 80% of Russian drones and 54% of missiles being shot down or suppressed."Regrettably, this is a result of both a sharp increase in the number of drones launched by Russia and Ukraine's shortages of ammunition and the decisions being made," Badrak believes.According to the expert, while the oversight of weapon development and modernization holds similar importance in both Ukraine and Russia, the funding for development is substantially better organized in Russia. It has a state support system that selects and scales the most advanced solutions.He also points to Ukraine's internal challenges with the standardization of its unmanned systems, noting that the absence of a single decision-making center continues to slow down several domestic projects."It is extremely difficult to find signs of productive ideas in the work of the military department's leadership during the war. This ranges from former Defense Minister Reznikov's initial dismissal of 'wedding drones,' which ended up playing a major role at a certain stage of the war, to current Defense Minister Umerov's failure to grasp the significance of a 'drone line' concept. The cost of such errors is hundreds, and possibly thousands, of our defenders' lives on the front, where they have faced daily shortages of weapons, ammunition, and effective solutions," Valentyn Badrak concludes.