Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi: Deep Strikes Key to Undermining Russia’s Military Capacity
General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces (AFU) of Ukraine, emphasized the strategic importance and effectiveness of Ukraine’s deep strike capabilities against Russia.
The Gaze reports on it, referring to an interview with the General on Sky News.
Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief of the AFU explained that deep strikes, carried out with drones and naval unmanned systems, allow Ukraine to target critical enemy infrastructure far behind the front lines, including weapons production, dual-use technologies, and missile and artillery manufacturing.
“And deep strikes overall help diminish the enemy's capacity to sustain this war, including the financing of it because Russia's oil and gas industry generates roughly $120 billion in revenue. And I would remind you that Russia's military budget for this year is $175 billion,” he said, mentioning that a large portion of the Russian military budget relies on oil and gas revenues.
Syrskyi highlighted that the impact of these operations is tangible: Russian factories producing military equipment have been damaged, and the Russian fleet, once freely operating from Sevastopol, is now confined to Novorossiysk under heavy defense measures.
Moreover, Ukrainian naval drones have forced the Russian fleet into hiding, limiting its operational freedom and only allowing occasional nighttime sorties against Ukrainian targets.
General Oleksandr Syrskyi also discussed the current situation on the battlefield, focusing on Pokrovsk. While Russia has claimed to have captured the city, he emphasized that the northern part of Pokrovsk remains under Ukrainian control, with forces gradually advancing further into the city.
“As a result, we effectively liberated and cleared approximately 430 square kilometers of territory. On this axis alone, the enemy lost more than 13,000 service members, both killed and wounded,” he noted.
The southern part, however, is under intense enemy attack. Syrskyi highlighted the scale of Russian forces in the Pokrovsk direction, estimating over 150,000 troops, including mechanized and motorized units, 18,000 Marines, and an additional 10,000 from the elite 76th Air Assault Division.
Ukraine, Syrskyi explained, is carrying out a strategic defensive operation on the whole front line as it holds back Russian advances, prevents breakthroughs, inflicts maximum losses, and launches counterattacks. According to him, Russia loses 1,000–2,000 troops daily, most of them killed.
“Our strategy is to exhaust the Russian army as much as possible, prevent its advance, hold our territory, while simultaneously striking the enemy in the near rear, the operational depth, the deeper into Russia itself with the aim of undermining its defense capability and industrial capacity,” the General stated.
The Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief also explained that drones have become the main strike force on the battlefield. Large battalion-level assaults have been replaced by small teams of two to four soldiers operating across wide fronts.
Every day, Russia deploys approximately 4,000–5,000 FPV drones and 1,500–2,000 bomb-dropping drones, alongside hundreds of heavy bomber drones acting as frontline aviation.
On the Ukrainian side, Syrskyi said there is roughly parity in drone capabilities, with Ukraine currently deploying slightly more FPV drones than Russia. Ukrainian forces also use effective heavy bomber drones that inflict significant losses on the enemy. While artillery remains important, drones now account for around 60% of strikes compared with 40% from artillery, due to their operational depth and precision.
“The battlefield today is dominated by drones, electronic warfare systems, and aerial strike capabilities. I'm referring primarily to guided aerial bombs which the enemy is using extremely aggressively spending on average between 130 and 150 guided bombs every single day,” he said.
As The Gaze reported earlier, in November, Ukraine carried out a record series of attacks on Russia's strategic oil infrastructure.
Read more on The Gaze: Why Ukraine Should be allowed to district of Russian Oil Refineries – Benefits for the US and EU