Exactly. In the years since the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. Russian media have been constantly boasting about measures to deal with the famous TB-2 Bayraktars. They have said that they have: Pantsirs, Anti-drone radars, Tunguskas, and AAM-armed Orion drones. They have demonstrated these things in their testing range. Well, where are they now?
How did Russia destroyed those Ukrainian air bases? I think they did a terrible job. Instead of just popping some buildings. They should have been scattering cluster munitions onto the runways. That's what NATO would have done. They should have put those airbases out of commission for weeks, not just 3 days.
When Russia intervened in Syria, they flooded the social media and news channels with countless UAV videos showing the targeting and destruction of enemy forces. Now, in the most important war that Russia is fighting in 20 years, we have seen nothing of such sort. Everything we see from the Russian side are either announcements, or videos taken on the ground by journalists or spectators. Its like as if Russia is trying to lose the information war. This better be worth the price Russians are paying with blood for each emboldened Ukrainian killing more Russians.
To be fair, the Russians have achieve near air superiority, albeit a porous one. Ukrainian helicopters and jets have largely been silenced. We don't hear about them anymore. But the Bayraktars are still out there, scouting and killing Russian troops. Why haven't the Russians seriously dealt with them? They have claimed to have the solutions. Its quite baffling.
I have observed countries who have used Russian military equipment and doctrine in conflicts. All of them have major issues with regards to air combat. Syria vs Israel, Armenia vs Azerbaijan, and India vs Pakistan. Fortunately China have been observant and have been adopting NATO war fighting concepts. For example, a greater emphasis on BVR combat than WVR for newer PLAAF aircrafts.
Ukraine probably might have a few dozen Bayraktars at the start of this war. With a number of them being destroyed on the ground and in the air, it is likely that their stocks would be dwindling soon. Russia destroying fuel and ammunition depots should accelerate their exit from this war. Its only a matter of time before the Bayraktars too would be silenced.