Ukraine And Russia Have Entered A New Phase Of The Drone War
- 22.08.2026, 22:27
Two countries are competing to see which one can build faster drones.
Russia is increasingly using jet-powered attack drones, forcing Ukraine to accelerate the development of new interception capabilities. This is reported by The Kyiv Independent.
As the publication notes, this new phase of the air war is particularly noticeable in Kyiv. Following a large-scale Russian attack on the night of August 20, which claimed the lives of 15 people, the capital came under drone strikes again during the day. The author attributes this to Russia’s increasingly active use of jet-powered versions of the Shahed.
According to Yuriy Ignat, head of the communications department at the Ukrainian Air Force Command, the number of such drones is growing rapidly. “In July, there were five times as many as in June,” he told the Kyiv Independent.
According to him, jet-powered drones sometimes account for up to two-thirds of all drones launched in a 24-hour period.
Previously, Ukraine had achieved significant success in countering the slower, piston-engine-powered Shaheds. The Ukrainian military began mass-deploying FPV interceptor drones, which transformed relatively inexpensive civilian drones into an effective component of air defense. One such interceptor, the Wild Hornets STING, costs about $2,300.
According to Kyle Glen, a researcher at the Center for Information Resilience, Russia rapidly increased the number of launches of conventional “Shaheds.” The peak occurred in May 2026, when Russia launched nearly 7,500 drones in a single month. Despite the scale of the attack, Ukrainian interception systems were able to shoot down about 95% of the piston-engine Shaheds.
However, as the author of the article explains, the emergence of faster jet-powered models is changing the situation. While a standard “Shahed” can reach a speed of approximately 185 km/h, its jet-powered versions, the “Geran-4” and “Geran-5,” are capable of flying at speeds of about 500 and 600 km/h, respectively. Because of this, they are significantly more difficult to destroy using FPV interceptors and mobile fire teams.
Ukrainian intelligence estimates that Russia is producing approximately 3,000 jet drones per month. In August, according to GUR estimates, the production of jet-powered strike drones had already surpassed that of piston-engine versions. At the same time, due to the greater complexity and cost of the new drones, the total number of Russian drone launches has decreased in recent months.
Ukraine is simultaneously trying to adapt its own interception system. One unnamed engineer working on the relevant program told the publication that Ukrainian developers had begun increasing the speed of existing interceptors in advance. According to him, there are already prototypes capable of catching up with jet-powered targets.
“This is an engineering problem for which there is an engineering solution,” the engineer emphasized. He also noted that the new interceptors should not be significantly more expensive than the models already in mass production.
The development of domestically produced jet interceptors has become a separate initiative. On August 14, former Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov announced tests of aircraft capable of reaching speeds of up to 600 km/h. And on August 21, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense announced the official entry into service of Ukraine’s first jet interceptor, the Alexa Spatium.
As the publication notes, this aircraft can reach high speeds, and if it fails to hit its target, it can be reused. In addition to countering drones, the interceptor is capable of attacking ground targets and helicopters.