The Bulava unit is part of Ukraine’s Presidential Brigade, which also performs ceremonial guard duties in Kyiv but mostly became a regular combat brigade after the 2022 invasion. Ignatukha and his men saw the war changing and got into drone technology, using their own salaries to buy equipment and build their skills.

Russian forces have launched a second drone attack on the city of Sumy, killing a 60-year-old woman, according to Oleh Hryhorov, head of the Sumy Regional Military Administration. As Hryhorov reported,

China supports russian terrorism – thus, China directly supports the fight against Europe. The new russian drone consists almost entirely of Chinese components, — GUR. The intelligence agency has published data on the drone, which the russians use as a decoy, reconnaissance… pic.twitter.com/1mpwMf9Kkh

Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine overnight into Saturday with hundreds of drones, killing at least one person, part of a stepped-up bombing campaign that has dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the more than 3-year-old war.

Between September 2022 and August 2023, Russia launched around 2,000 Iranian-designed Shahed drones into Ukraine, according to the conflict monitor Airwars. That figure has surged in 2025. In June alone, Russia launched a record 5,337 Shahed-type drones, comprising both attack and decoy variants.

A Russian factory, described by its director as the world's biggest maker of strike drones, has been shown on the Russian army's TV channel with teenagers helping make kamikaze drones to attack Ukraine.

In an interview yesterday with the New York Post, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky floated a new pending “mega-deal” with U.S. President Donald Trump to sell Ukrainian drones to the American military.

"Ukraine protects the front line against Russian aggression for all of Europe," Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said on Monday.