Russia aims to launch 2,000 drones towards Ukraine at once, German general says
Russia aims to be able to launch 2,000 drones towards Ukraine simultaneously, German Major General Christian Freuding said in an interview published on July 19.
The staggering figure described by Freuding, who heads the Ukraine task force at the German Defense Ministry, comes as Russia continues to expand its drone production.
Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service (SZRU) told Politico in June that the Kremlin plans to produce 2 million first-person-view (FPV) drones and 30,000 long-range and decoy drones in 2025, marking a critical expansion of Moscow's drone warfare program.
Between Sept. 13, 2022, and Aug. 30, 2023, Russian forces fired nearly 2,000 Shaheds into Ukraine, according to Airwars, a London-based conflict monitoring organization. That number has surged in 2025 — in June alone, Moscow launched a record 5,337 Shahed-type drones.
Freuding's comments come as Russia has continued to ramp up its Iranian-designed Shahed drone attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, including strikes on Ukraine's far-western regions. On July 9, Russia launched a record 728 Shahed-type drones and decoys across the country.
Robert "Magyar" Brovdi, the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces warned on July 4 that Russian Shahed drone strikes could escalate to 1,000 per day.
Amid the increased risk of intensified Russian attacks, Freuding told the Bundeswehr podcast Nachgefragt, that Ukraine can indirectly counter anticipated drones attacks by targeting production sites with long-range missiles.
Ukraine regularly strikes military production facilities on Russian territory, but has called upon Western allies to supply more long-range weaponry for added capabilities.
Freuding announced earlier this month that Ukraine will begin receiving hundreds of domestically produced long-range weapon systems by the end of July under a German-financed agreement. The announcement came ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's agreement with NATO to supply additional weapons to Ukraine.
Amid Russia's attacks on Ukrainian cities, Ukraine's military appears to have intensified its own efforts in targeting Russia's capital. Ukraine's military has targeted Moscow for four straight nights, with fires breaking out in Moscow Oblast on July 20 amid the attacks.
In an effort to counter Russia's increasing drone production, Ukraine has also increased production of its own drones Ukraine's, using them heavily in attacks on various Russian regions as well as on the front line.
Then-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said at a June 26 press briefing that Kyiv currently has the capacity to produce 4 million drones a year. President Volodymyr Zelensky also said that Kyiv has the capacity 8 million drones annually, but lacks the international financial backing to reach that potential.
