Ukraine’s Growing Drone Armada Is Overwhelming Russia’s Air Defenses
Ukrainian drones have knocked more than 20% of Russia's oil refining capacity offline, hitting 8 of the country's 10 biggest refineries since March.
The IEA stated:
"This level of disruption is unprecedented in the history of the Russia-Ukraine conflict."
And the damage being done by Ukraineis reaching the pump...
As of late June, 55 of Russia's 83 regions were reporting fuel restrictions.
Kyiv plans to build 7 million military drones this year, up from roughly 4 million in 2025.
A few hundred dollar FPV drone destroys a vehicle worth millions, and waves of them saturate air defenses that track only a handful of targets at once.
Something that's very clear:
Cheap attack is beating expensive defense. That pulls capital into the drones and the systems built to stop them.
Three stocks I like for Ukraine's exponential drone dominance:
$AVEX (AEVEX) IPO'd on the NYSE in April. It builds the Phoenix Ghost loitering munition and has shipped more than 5,000 attack drones to Ukraine, more than any US rival. Revenue hit $433M in 2025, Q1 came in at $217M, and it guides $600M+ this year against an $8B pipeline.
$AVAV bought BlueHalo for $4.1B, bolting counter-drone, directed energy and electronic warfare onto its Switchblade line. Its last reported quarter grew 143%. Next print lands June 29.
$KTOS builds jet-powered attritable drones like the Valkyrie alongside a counter-UAS line. Revenue grew 23% last quarter, backlog sits near $2B, and it just landed a $447M Space Force award.
$AVEX $AVAV $KTOS Ukraine’s Growing Drone Armada Is Overwhelming Russia’s Air Defenses