A Ukrainian air defense soldier gets ready to repel Russia’s drone attack near Kiev. (AP Photo)
Russia’s new class of jet-powered drones rip across the night sky in Kiev at hundreds of kilometers per hour, leaving Ukrainian air-defense units only moments to intercept them. It’s rarely enough time.
With many of the drones getting through to the capital, defense manufacturers are scrambling to develop a new generation of interceptors to counter the deadly threat. They are building their own jet-propulsion systems and training artificial intelligence to help guide the chase.
They need to move fast because the Russian drones are driving a new tactic, ramped up in recent weeks, to hit the infrastructure keeping Ukraine’s war-battered economy afloat. Recent targets have included energy systems, key industries, railways, post offices, shopping centers, telecom networks, gas stations and grain exports.
The effects of the barrage are being felt in Kiev, which increasingly resembles a front-line city, without the relative safety that had long set it apart from the fighting.
Ukrainian officials say they are testing new interceptors that have successfully hit jet-powered Russian drones, which fly much higher and faster than propeller-driven drones and are much harder to stop.
“They’re moving so fast that we can’t get a proper lock on them,” said Volodymyr Serdiuk, commander of an air-defense unit.
Building the prototype interceptors in sufficient numbers, and training pilots to fly them, could take up to six months, manufacturers say. President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for faster production.
Air-defense crews have no time to wait. Facing constant waves of drones, they improvise, but lives are lost almost daily.
Serdiuk’s air-defense crew begins their night shift at 8 p.m.
He studies a tablet connected to a centralized radar system to track the sky above his sector. A circle marks the stretch of airspace his unit is responsible for protecting.
“It’s like chasing a pig in the forest,” he said of the new drones, which are based on Iranian-designed Shahed models.
Then a red marker appears on the screen, moving rapidly across the map. It’s a jet-powered Shahed drone.
“Exit!” someone cries. Serdiuk looks up.
Moments later, the Shahed streaks across the night sky. It is already beyond his unit’s reach. His team relies on heavy machine guns, but their rounds cannot match the drone’s speed or altitude.
Then, a flash. Seconds later, the sound of an explosion reaches them from several kilometers away.
The same sequence happened again and again throughout the night.
Ukraine’s air defenses use electronic warfare and AI to steer incoming Russian drones into narrow corridors in the sky, giving interceptors a better chance of catching them.
But the latest jet-powered Shahed drones are testing that strategy. The fastest Ukrainian interceptors typically reach 300 to 400 kph, not fast enough to meet the new threat.
For now, salvation can appear on a radar screen as a blue blip representing one of Ukraine’s few F-16 fighter jets, scrambled to hunt down the fastest drones. They are capable of stopping the drones, but they need a lot of maintenance. Many are currently out of service and awaiting repairs.
“It’s very encouraging to see the blue part,” Almeida said.
