A digital command system called Mission Control tracks the cost of each Ukrainian drone strike. Hitting a soldier costs $3,032; hitting equipment costs less.
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Ukraine's defense ministry has calculated the cost of its drone strikes, and the most expensive target is personnel. Hitting one Russian serviceman in June cost the Ukrainian military $3,032, the ministry said Monday.
Striking a piece of Russian equipment ran $2,674. Hitting an infrastructure facility cost $1,487 – less than half the price of a soldier. The figures come from Mission Control, a digital command system launched in January that logs every drone mission.
The Ukrainian defense ministry said Mission Control collects over 230,000 reports each week and has recorded more than 50,000 missions. "In every category, the enemy incurs costs several times greater than ours," the ministry said.
Western estimates put monthly Russian casualties at roughly 30,000 killed or wounded. Ukraine has driven down drone costs sharply over the war. In 2024, Ukrainian troops told reporters they spent about $20,000 on drones to kill one Russian soldier. The current $3,032 figure represents a sixfold improvement.
Mission Control is one module in DELTA, the country's digital battlefield management system. DELTA collects data from drones, frontline reports, and satellite intelligence. The system generally accepts a hit record only when backed by video evidence; the defense ministry said DELTA processes over 75,000 video streams per day.
Ukraine said Mission Control lets drone teams log the cost of the weapons used in each strike alongside the value of the equipment they destroy. That data is what drives the cost-per-target math.
In June, Ukraine recorded 6,600 drone strikes per day through DELTA, or about 200,000 strikes for the month. The defense ministry said at Monday's briefing that every dollar spent on strikes that month inflicted nearly five dollars' worth of losses on Russia. The ministry pegged the cost to sustain one Russian service member at roughly $65,000.
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