Kyiv suffers hours of daytime air raids as Russia deploys new jet-powered drones
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says about 800 Shahed drones fired into Ukraine in four days in effort to ‘wear down’ country
TL;DR
- Russia has fired 800 jet-powered Shahed drones into Ukraine in four days, sustaining prolonged daytime attacks.
- The new jet-powered Shahed drones have a cruising speed of 200-250 mph, making them difficult for Ukraine's current interceptors to stop.
- Ukraine's president stated that jet-powered models now account for over half of Russia's drone attacks.
- A Geran-4 drone strike on an ammunition dump near Kyiv killed 38 people.
- Daytime attacks have caused businesses to halt operations and forced emergency services to leave attack sites.
- The jet-powered Shahed 238 was unveiled by Iran in autumn 2023, with Russia manufacturing and deploying its variant, Geran-4, in numbers since spring.
- Ukraine had high interception rates for piston-engined Shaheds but needs faster interceptors for the jet-powered versions.
- Four companies are developing new interceptor drones to counter the jet-powered Shaheds.