"We understand that drones are now playing a major role on the battlefield," said the lawmaker.
“And if we take the main component, which is FPV drones, I will say that their range is up to 20 kilometers. There are some individual copies that can fly further. But out of these 20 kilometers, the average [distance] can be determined as 10 to 15, because 20 is already the range of some specialized drones. Moreover, they perform worse in electronic warfare conditions.”
Kostenko highlighted that the 20-kilometer buffer zone is where mass drone use poses the greatest threat.
“Anything beyond that isn’t widely developed yet,” he added.
“There are rare examples that can hit the enemy, but they’re much more expensive, fewer in number, and require specialized operators.”
The side that first develops and deploys drones with ranges exceeding 20-30 kilometers on a mass scale will gain a significant battlefield advantage, Kostenko said.
On April 5, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi announced that Ukrainian fiber-optic-guided drones with a 20-kilometer range are already operational on the front lines.