Russia has appointed Yuri Vaganov, a businessman and volunteer from the Moscow region with no formal military education, to command the Armed Forces’ unmanned systems forces, according to reports by Russian bloggers and a source in the country’s drone industry cited by The Moscow Times.
“The person appointed commander is widely known to many involved in the ‘special military operation’ as ‘Yura Unitaz.’ He not only lacks military education… he used to sell plumbing supplies, which is where the nickname comes from. He later became a monopolist in supplying FPV drones to Russian troops,” one source said.
Another source claims Vaganov works closely with Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko and that their relationship is “purely about commerce,” rather than the development and deployment of unmanned systems in modern warfare.
In December 2024, at a Defense Ministry board meeting, Andrei Belousov, acting on President Vladimir Putin’s instructions, ordered the creation of a new branch within the Russian military: the Unmanned Systems Forces. In June 2025, Putin himself confirmed at a meeting on the state armaments program that such forces were being established. On November 12, Komsomolskaya Pravda and other state media reported that the formation of Russia’s unmanned systems troops had been completed.
No details were previously released about the new branch or who would command it.
During a televised call-in show, Putin said he had sent 700,000 people to fight in Ukraine. Recruitment for the drone forces was even opened as a competitive process.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin bristled at President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Christmas greeting, prompting Putin’s press secretary to convene a briefing with reporters.
