On July 7, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense declassified details of a special operation codenamed “Ashan” — a large-scale, two-phase campaign by Ukrainian drone operators that deprived Russian forces of their offensive potential on one section of the front for several months.
According to Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, the concept for the operation emerged during testing of a new class of hardware — heavy bomber drones capable of penetrating deep into enemy rear areas and returning to base. Once it became clear that such aircraft could reach targets inaccessible to artillery or FPV drones, a decision was made to build a dedicated special operation around them.
Last year, additional funding was allocated for its execution. The Defense Forces stockpiled purpose-built drones. Enemy targets were selected through the Delta situational-awareness system on the basis of intelligence data.
The first phase focused on equipment: tanks, armored fighting vehicles, and logistics assets. The results exceeded expectations: in just three days, Ukrainian units struck 949 enemy targets. Following the strike, the occupiers were forced to pull a significant portion of their equipment back from the front line, and it took them months to recover their losses. In effect, the enemy’s mechanized offensive was halted for approximately six months.
Several weeks ago, the Defense Forces repeated the operation under a separate name, “Art.Ashan.” This time the focus shifted to enemy artillery. The strike was coordinated simultaneously across the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk directions. A new type of munition designed specifically for engaging artillery systems was developed for it.
The second phase yielded 231 targets struck, of which 171 were fully destroyed. The results were confirmed through objective-control means and intercepts of occupiers’ communications. Across both phases of Operation Ashan, the Defense Forces struck a combined total of 1,180 enemy targets.
The operation was carried out by units that consistently rank among the most effective drone formations in the Defense Forces:
- The Separate Special-Purpose Detachment Lasar’s Group of the National Guard of Ukraine — established in 2022 by a group of volunteers. Over the course of the war, the detachment’s fighters have destroyed enemy equipment worth more than $14 billion.
- The 412th Separate Brigade of Unmanned Systems NEMESIS — formed in late 2023 as a battalion and expanded into a full brigade last year. It specializes in engaging ground, air, and maritime targets at tactical and operational depth.
According to Fedorov, each such operation represents offensive plans that have been thwarted and Ukrainian soldiers’ lives that have been saved.
For context: since the beginning of 2026, the Defense Forces have struck more than 800,000 verified targets along the entire front line, with unmanned systems now accounting for more than 90% of those strikes. The 1,180 targets of Ashan represent less than 0.2% of the total. However, the operation’s impact lies in the fact that strikes were delivered against carefully selected priority targets — and that is what helped degrade the Russian forces’ offensive potential.
Read also: Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces released details of Operation “Polyphemus” — work to disable radar systems of the air-surveillance network in Russia’s Bryansk Oblast.