Ukraine's military has shared dramatic new footage appearing to show its air defenses in southern Ukraine taking down a slew of Russian Shahed drones, a key part of Russia's aerial bombardment of the country.
A brief video posted by the head of Ukraine's air force, Lieutenant General Mykola Oleschuk, on Tuesday appears to show a collection of clips in which Ukrainian air defenses engage incoming Shahed kamikaze drones. The video shows the downing of the suicide drones at unspecified locations in southern Ukraine, according to Oleschuk.
Newsweek could not independently verify the clip, and has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
⚡️ Більшість «шахедів» цієї ночі було збито в зоні відповідальності повітряного командування «Південь».🎥 На відео – бойова робота підрозділів зенітних...
Russia has relentlessly launched Iranian-designed Shahed attack drones on Ukrainian targets throughout the more than 22 months of all-out war. The drones that explode as they approach their target are a cheaper but nonetheless effective way for Russia to attack Ukrainian cities or key energy infrastructure.
Ukrainian air defenses have had high success rates in shooting down the drones, but they can often approach undetected.
On Tuesday, Kyiv's air force said its air defenses had shot down 35 Shahed drones overnight. The drones were launched from the Russian-controlled Crimean peninsula and Russia's southern Krasnodar region, Ukraine said.
The previous day, Ukraine said Russia had launched a "record number" of Shahed drones in a New Year's Eve blitz across the country. Moscow used a total of 90 Shahed drones from four locations in southern Russia and Crimea, as well as firing a spate of missiles. Ukraine destroyed 87 of the Shahed drones, according to Kyiv.
Later on Monday, the Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched another 10 Shahed drone attacks at around 2 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET).
On Sunday, Russia had launched another 49 Shaheds, and Ukraine said it intercepted 21 of the drones. The uncrewed vehicles largely targeted the southern Kherson, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions, but also struck across Kharkiv, Ukraine added.
Last month, Ukraine's military warned that Russia had enough Shahed drones to "attack Ukraine every day in different directions."
Russia now has a fifth confirmed Shahed drone launch site, British defense officials said in mid-December. The Balaklava site, south of the key Crimean port city of Sevastopol, joins the Cape Chauda site on the peninsula, as well as three more bases—Yeysk, Kursk, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk—in Russia.
Ukrainian military officials said in late November that Russia had started sending modified versions of the Shaheds over Ukrainian territory. The new versions were darker and made of carbon fiber, making them harder for Ukrainian air defenses to pick up.
Kyiv is "developing anti-Shahed solutions," Mykhailo Fedorov, Kyiv's minister of digital transformation, who is at the helm of the drone efforts against Moscow, told Newsweek in early December. Ukraine is focusing on identifying incoming Shahed drones, while developing and producing its own long-range drones, he said, adding: "In terms of production, we do a lot compared to last year."
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine ... Read more
