Russia Replacing Missiles with Drones in Ukraine Attacks

Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian targets using Kamikaze UAVs have significantly increased for the third month in a row, according to a U.K. Ministry of Defence assessment.

The MOD's latest defence intelligence update said 2,000 one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles had been launched by Russia against Ukraine in October. This represents 700 more attacks than in September.

Drones replacing missiles

The last large-scale missile attack on Kyiv took place in September, but Russia has changed its tactics and is now depleting Ukraine's air defense with much cheaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Kyiv Post reported.

“From 2 to 8 November, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have carried out 38 group strikes by high-precision weapons and attack unmanned aerial vehicles, which the Ukrainian defence industry enterprises, power industry facilities that used to support the AFU, the infrastructure of military airfields, manufacturing shops and storage areas for uncrewed surface vehicles and attack drones, arsenals, ammunition and POL depots,” the Russian MoD said in a statement yesterday.

“Shooting down a drone takes longer as it is not as fast as a missile and can be harder to detect, especially at night. Drones also often maneuver and change altitudes, making it difficult for mobile air defense fire groups and other military units to down them. As a result, air raid alarms can stay on for hours scaring and confusing residents,” a local official in Kyiv official was quoted a saying in local media.

"Now they (Russian forces) are using the tactic when (Iranian) Shaheds enter the city at low altitudes, the attacks come in waves," Mykhailo Shamanov, the spokesperson of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said on national television on Nov. 2.

In response to the rising Russian drone attacks, Ukraine has pleaded for urgent additional air defenses for highlighted by the increasing number of Russian drones “whose buzzing sounds and explosions are surprising Kyiv’s downtown residents,” Kyivpost reported.