FRANCE 24: Ukraine drone reach increases

FRANCE 24 English said in a video report published on May 20 that Ukraine is increasingly able to strike targets inside Russia with newly deployed mid- and long-range drones. The broadcaster’s related web report, dated May 19, said the new systems are successfully hitting targets inside Russia and described them as part of a broader push to expand Ukraine’s reach beyond the front line. The report landed days after one of the largest recent Ukrainian drone barrages against Russian territory. France 24 reported on May 17 that Russian air defences intercepted 556 drones overnight across 14 regions, with another 30 intercepted after dawn, in what it described as one of the biggest barrages of the war. (france24.com) Ukraine has been building this capability for months, and the latest France 24 segment fits into that pattern. A separate France 24 report published in January said Ukraine had stepped up strikes deep inside Russia since August 2025 using domestically produced weapons, principally drones, while Western allies had been reluctant to allow the use of long-range missiles for those purposes. (france24.com) What has changed is not only range, but scale and cost. The France 24 report said Ukraine is using mid- and long-range drones in larger numbers, and outside reporting has described Kyiv’s expanding inventory as lower-cost, one-way attack systems that can be produced domestically and sent at targets far from the border. (france24.com) President Volodymyr Zelensky said on May 17 that Ukraine’s “long-range sanctions” had reached the Moscow region and called the attacks a justified response to Russia’s continued strikes on Ukrainian cities. In the same wave of reporting, France 24 cited Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Forces, as saying Kyiv’s priority remained the build-up of long-range strike capabilities “to the fullest extent possible” against a wide range of military targets. (france24.com) The deeper strikes are also becoming more visible inside Russia. Time reported that more than 120 drones were intercepted near Moscow during the May 17 attacks, and cited Zelensky as saying Ukrainian forces had struck targets more than 500 kilometers from the border despite dense Russian air defenses around the capital. Other reporting in May pointed to an even wider geographic reach. (france24.com) Al Jazeera reported on May 1 that Ukrainian strikes had hit oil and logistics targets in the Urals about 1,600 kilometers from Ukraine’s borders, while citing Ukrainian and Russian officials on attacks against energy infrastructure. The immediate next place to track this story is France 24’s public video and follow-up reporting, which remain online, along with official statements from Zelensky and Russia’s defence ministry on subsequent drone attacks. (time.com) (france24.com) (aljazeera.com)