According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russia wants to drain Ukraine with long drone strikes. “We have information that Russia is planning a long-term attack by Shahed drones,” Zelenskyy said in his daily video last night. Russia wants to get wear out of it. “The depletion of our people, our air defenses, our energy,” he said. “But we must and will do everything we can to ensure that this terrorists’ objective fails like all others.”
The Russian military uses kamikaze drones that, at the end of the flight, descend vertically on the target. The relatively slow Iranian-made drones are an easy target for anti-aircraft defenses, but the large number of deployed unmanned aerial vehicles and constant aerial surveillance pose a major challenge for Ukrainian air defenses. Then there is the cost factor – a drone made from cheap parts has to be shot down with expensive weapons systems.
Zelenskyy: Useless Attacks
“Only two days have passed since the beginning of the year,” Zelenskyy said. “And already the number of drones shot down over Ukraine is more than 80.” However, Russian attacks would be futile because Ukrainians are united, Zelenskyy said. Russians, on the other hand, are united only by fear. The Russian military primarily uses drones against Ukrainian cities to do as much damage as possible to the power grid there.