Ukraine and Russia hunt for drone engineers: Fox News on the ‘hunt’ for developers

Ukraine and Russia are stepping up attacks on executives and key engineers at enterprises manufacturing the enemy’s unmanned aerial vehicles.

This is reported by Fox News.

The outlet recalls the car explosion on August 4 near Yekaterinburg, in which Vladimir Tkachuk — the head of Russian drone manufacturer Uraldronzavod — may have been injured. A few days before that, Andrei Cherezov, the head of another Russian drone manufacturer, was shot three times in Tula.

Cameron Chell, CEO of drone manufacturer Draganfly, links the rise in such attacks to a shift in the nature of the war. According to him, the two countries’ competition in UAV production is making developers of new technologies an increasingly important target.

“When you can’t destroy all the distributed infrastructure, drone production leadership becomes the primary target. These strikes in Russia, Ukraine, and Germany against founders, executives, engineers of defense companies and, specifically, drone companies, are tied to the fact that drones and these companies themselves have such enormous influence. Because drone technology is evolving rapidly — often with significant updates occurring every 10 to 30 days — striking a key engineer, founder, or product lead creates immediate operational disruptions on the battlefield,” Chell said.

He added that eliminating even one engineer or executive can stall an important weapons program for an extended period and disrupt supplies to the front line.

Fox News also reports that German law enforcement detained two people suspected of spying on a Bavarian drone manufacturer on behalf of Russia. According to the outlet, the detainees had been planning an attack on the head of one such company. This story follows the situation involving the assassination attempt on the CEO of German company Rheinmetall.

In Chell’s view, as artificial intelligence and drone autonomy advance, the engineers developing these technologies will become an even more strategically important target for intelligence services.

“Artificial intelligence and full autonomy are the key innovations of the next 18 months, so a potential reason we may see more targeted actions against executives is that Ukrainians hold this technological advantage. Attacking small drone companies is a relatively simple operation compared to attacking individuals working in state weapons development programs,” he added.

At the same time, Chell noted that Ukraine and Russia approach such operations differently. From a tactical standpoint, neither side has an advantage, but such operations exert greater psychological pressure on Russia specifically.

“Ukraine faces an existential threat, so it is willing to do anything. Their tactics tend to be far more straightforward — a direct shooting in a hallway or a car bomb. Russian tactics tend to be far more state-organized, using old Cold War tactics: low-level contacts, extensive reconnaissance and surveillance in advance, and penetration into other countries such as Germany. The Russians have a long, well-established intelligence infrastructure rooted in World War II and the Cold War,” Chell noted.

Fox News previously reported that the elimination of generals in Russia is exposing a growing rift within Putin’s security apparatus: the military wants the FSB to provide personal protection from Ukrainian attacks, while the intelligence service is unwilling to take responsibility for military personnel.

The SBU, for its part, previously reported that Russia is also stepping up operations against Ukrainian military personnel using so-called “honey traps.” According to the agency, since the beginning of 2026 alone, the SBU has prevented more than 50 Russian attempts to eliminate Ukrainian fighters through staged dates with women.