(Reuters) -President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that Ukraine was working on the rapid development of interceptor drones to counter the swarms of Russian drones that have been descending on Ukrainian cities in increasing numbers in recent weeks.
Ukrainian officials have noted the sharply increased numbers of Iranian-designed Shahed drones deployed by Russian drones in the course of a single night and say it is vital to develop technology capable of tackling the threat they pose.
“We are also working separately on interceptor drones, which are intended to enhance protection against Shahed drones,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
“Several of our domestic enterprises — and, accordingly, different types of drones — are delivering results. Production volumes of interceptors are already increasing.”
Russian forces have been deploying more than 400 drones on a single night, with more than 470 fired on more than one occasion.
A total of 440 drones — plus 32 missiles — were deployed this week in a “combined” attack on Kyiv that flattened part of an apartment building and killed 28 people.
“Drone air defence will help us use our means in a rational fashion. We cannot constantly use scarce air and anti-aircraft guided missiles and aviation itself to hunt enemy drones,” Air Force spokesperson Yuri Ihnat told Ukrainian media this week.
“The enemy is deploying more and more Shaheds and we are therefore looking for different methods to counter them.”
Zelenskiy and other officials have pointed to domestic drone production as a key element in national defence, and production has increased dramatically from being virtually non-existent before the Russian invasion of February 2022.
The president told foreign arms manufacturers last November that Ukraine could produce 4 million drones annually and was quickly ramping up its production of other weapons.
Ukraine has also been deploying drones against a variety of targets in Russia, mainly industrial and military. In a major operation earlier last month, Ukrainian drones attacked strategic bomber aircraft at different Russian airfields.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksander Kozhukhar; Editing by Leslie Adler)
