Ukraine says it’s developing new technology to combat the waves of attacks by Iranian-made drones that Russia has bought.
Oleksii Reznikov, the Ukrainian defense minister, said Friday that he believed Russia currently had some 300 Iranian-made attack drones, “and they are trying to purchase a few thousand more such drones. We will see whether it happens or not, but we have to be prepared.”
“We are developing systems for their suppression … We disassemble the drones to [see] the details, see what kind of electronic ‘brains’ they have inside and accordingly prepare various countermeasures,” he added.
The Russians were using Iranian “kamikaze” drones in groups, partly to detect the disposition of Ukrainian air defenses, Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for the Ukrainian military in the south, said on Thursday. “Now they are starting to use them almost all over the territory of Ukraine, they are using them from the northern directions, not only from the south.”
In the southern region, Ukrainian air defenses shot down 109 drones and 33 had hit targets, Humeniuk added, saying most had been aimed at civilian infrastructure.
“The fact that they are trying to use these drones on critical infrastructure facilities, to deprive us of water, heat, electricity, corresponds to the tactical and technical characteristics and purpose of these kamikaze drones, because they work like matches. [The drone] sets fire to the object and disables it not with an explosion, but more with a fire,” she explained.
