Russia Steps Up Mass Drone Attacks On Ukrainian

Russia is unleashing near-constant waves of long-range drone strikes on Ukrainian cities as its troops advance in the east, as President Volodomyr Zelensky warned Moscow was firing about 10 times as many drones as it did last fall.

As well as drastically increasing the number of strikes, Russia has begun to fire decoy drones without warheads to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defences. Decoy drones carry a “3D-printed ball wrapped in foil” to imitate the warhead of an Iran-made Shahed-136 drone, Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s air defenses, said.

These cheaper drones confuse Ukraine’s air defences, which may shoot down decoy drones instead of ones carrying a lethal warhead. Decoy drones now account for as many as half of all Russian drones fired at Ukraine, Ihnat said.

Offences
The Russian army has been pounding Ukraine throughout the war, but the moves signal a change in Moscow’s tactics following Donald Trump’s reelection as president, who could pull support. Meanwhile, Ukraine is under fierce pressure on the eastern frontlines, where its army chief has warned his forces are facing “one of the most powerful Russian offensives” since the start of the war.

Night after night, residents in Kyiv and across the country have been kept awake by the sound of explosions and the continuous buzzing of drones. Air raid sirens blasted in Kyiv for around 50 hours in September, 80 hours in October, and more than 30 hours in the first week of November alone.

In the capital, there has only been one night without a drone attack since September 1.

“Their goal is to break us morally,” Vadym Naustinov, a 32-year-old copywriter living in the centre of Kyiv, said on Thursday. He said he has developed a “system” for coping with constant air attacks.

“If I hear drones flying or realize that the explosions are getting closer, I quickly run to the subway,” he said, which had been used throughout the war as a bomb shelter. “If I realize that the explosions are close by, and Shahed is near my house, so I won’t have time to get to the subway, I hide in the corridor or bathroom. I just hide, wait, and hope that I will survive.”

Shrapnel from downed Russian drones injured at least two people and damaged several buildings in Kyiv after an attack overnight into Thursday, said Serhiy Popko, head of the city’s military administration “It was a massive attack,” Popko said, with the attack coming “in waves, from different directions” and at “different altitudes.”

Hours later, Russia launched another air attack on the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, killing at least four people and injuring 18 others, including a four-month-old girl, local officials said. “They enjoy people’s death there,” Zelensky said on Telegram.”

Zelensky on Monday said Russia has increased by tenfold its Iranian-made Shahed drone attacks on Ukraine. “This terror is increasing every month,” he said earlier this week.

CNN/Shakirat Sadiq