Ukraine's Zaluzhny touts drones as path to victory; Russia suffers strikes

Ukraine's commander-in-chief has outlined a plan to massively scale up the use of unmanned systems to overcome Russia's advantages in manpower and materiel and break the deadlock in this war. The effectiveness of such systems was proved again last week as they sank a Russian missile corvette, grounded three planes and set an oil refinery on fire. Russia, too, continued to attack Ukraine with drones and missiles, but it failed to capture new territory despite its superior resources and constant assaults on the eastern city of Avdiivka and Ukraine's stronghold at Krynky on the left bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region. Meanwhile, Ukraine's Western allies made progress on securing funding for the war. The European Union finally approved a 50-billion-euro ( 63bn) aid package for Ukraine, and the United States Senate unveiled a 118bn bill that includes 60bn for Ukraine.