Mike Baker

But Ukrainian officials say they've not only closed that gap, they're starting to reverse it.

And it's not just about quantity.

Polisa also pointed to the growing use of fiber optic controlled drones, which are significantly harder to jam or disrupt.

He said those systems now account for roughly 32% of Ukraine's daily strike drone usage, compared to about 24% on the Russian side.

At the same time, he acknowledged that Russia is continuing to improve its own systems, meaning that this remains a highly competitive and rapidly evolving fight.

And importantly, this advantage is not uniform across the battlefield.

Polisa noted that Russian forces are still able to concentrate drone assets in specific sectors, creating localized advantages.

What he described as dominance in the, quote, small sky to support ground assaults and tactical breakthroughs.

So while the overall trend may be shifting, the fight remains highly uneven depending on the front.

Still, there are signs this shift is beginning to have broader operational effects.

Ukraine's security service says its strikes have destroyed at least $4 billion worth of Russian air defense systems over the past year, including S-300 and S-400 systems, helping degrade Russia's layered defenses and open corridors for long-range drone operations deeper inside Russian territory.

That aligns with separate reporting from ABC News, which found that in March, Ukraine launched more long-range attack drones than Russia for the first time since 2022.

Another indicator that Kyiv's expanding domestic drone production is starting to reshape the balance.

And there's additional data that underscores just how dominant their drones have become on the battlefield.

Ukrainian President Zelensky said recently that in March alone, drones accounted for roughly 96% of Russian casualties, with nearly 34,000 troops killed or wounded by drone strikes.

Taken together, the data points to a clear trajectory for Ukrainian forces as the war grinds into its fifth year.

After spending much of the war playing catch-up in the drone space, Ukraine now appears to be gaining an edge in scale, lethality, and innovation.

And that, my friends, is the President's Daily Brief for Thursday, the 9th of April.

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