Germany updates: Social Democrats bid farewell to Scholz – DW – 06/28/2025
Olaf Scholz reflected on his years in government as the Social Democratic Party congress bids farewell to the former chancellor. He also warned against having any illusions about Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans.
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5 hours ago
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Are interceptor drones Ukraine's best option against Russia? – DW – 06/28/2025
Moscow is increasingly attacking Ukrainian cities with Shahed drones flying at high altitude. Could interceptor drones provide a better and cheaper solution than traditional air defense? Russian airstrikes on cities and towns across Ukraine are rapidly increasing in intensity. Between June 1 and June 20, Moscow launched 3,681 Shahed drones and fake drones, which serve to disorientate the Ukrainian air defense forces. A year ago, the average was at around 600 per month. To counter these attacks, Ukraine is looking for unconventional solutions, such as the use of interceptor drones. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and the ensuing war, Moscow has not only increased the production of drones — it has also modernized them and changed deployment tactics. Current drones can maneuver and fly at high altitudes, which is why they cannot be reached by Ukrainian mobile air defense forces with machine guns. "Lately, the Russian Federation has been sending drones at an altitude of about 2 kilometers," Yuriy Ihnat, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force , told DW. "That's why it's becoming more and more difficult for our mobile units to intercept Shahed drones," he added. "When drones fly lower, you can see them and shoot at them," he said. "First you detect them acoustically, then visually and with the help of thermal imaging cameras and sighting devices. Opening fire on them is only effective once a drone is flying at an altitude of up to 1 kilometer." Experts have expressed alarm at Russia's latest tactics. "Russia is going to bomb our entire country with Shahed drones. They have significantly increased production and will continue to do so. If we don't act immediately, our infrastructure, our production and our defense systems will be destroyed," military and communications expert Serhiy Beskrestnov warned on social media. In his view, Ukraine needs to ramp up mass production of interceptor drones and train drone pilots. At the front, the use of interceptor drones is anything but new. The Ukrainian military has been using first-person view, or FPV, drones, equipped with cameras that provide the drone pilot with real-time images, for quite some time. These drones are used against various Russian drones, including surveillance and kamikaze models. In order to destroy Shahed drones, which fly faster than many others, however, Ukraine needs special drones. "An Orlan, for example, flies at 100 to 140 kilometers per hour and Shahed drones can reach 200 to 300 kilometers per hour," Serhii Sternenko, head of the Sternenko Community Foundation which provides the Ukrainian military with FPV drones, told DW. In such cases, drones with different characteristics were required for defense. "There are even Ukrainian-made ones. Our troops have already shot down Shaheds several times with such drones," said Sternenko. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, his country is focusing on the rapid development of interceptor drones to also defend cities in the hinterland. "In particular, we are working on interceptor drones to enhance protection against Shaheds," Zelenskyy said at the G7 summit in Canada on June 17, pointing out that Ukraine is collaborating with partners to secure more substantial funding. Meanwhile, many Ukrainian manufacturers are already working on such drones. In particular, Wild Hornets, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the production of drones for the Ukrainian armed forces, has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to intercept Shahed and Gerbera drones with its Sting interceptor drone. At the same time, the German startup Tytan Technologies is testing its own interceptor drone with the Ukrainian military, and the Lviv-based company Besomar claims its drone can wait up to two hours in the air for a target. At Kyiv's Dronarium Academy, future drone pilots are trained for aerial combat. They use special simulators for the Ukrainian armed force, and each FPV drone pilot needs about a month to learn to control a drone at high speed. "We are forming new units to cover cities in the hinterland with air defense systems equipped with interceptor drones and we are also training drone pilots," said Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat. "If all air defense groups had interceptor drones and we could use them to destroy enemy drones, we would already have something like 'Star Wars'," said Besomar co-founder Roman Shemechko. "That would be effective, as you wouldn't be shooting at clouds anymore but instead pursuing a target to take it out. That's more effective than simply shooting at Shaheds flying at an altitude of 3 kilometers or wasting a missile," he added. According to experts, interceptor drones are also a reasonable alternative given the cost of anti-aircraft missiles. According to the Unmanned Systems Forces, a branch of the Ukrainian army that specializes in drone warfare, the price of an anti-aircraft missile can be as high as $1 million (€85.4 million), while an interceptor drone costs around $5,000.
DW
5 hours ago
- DW
Germany updates: Social Democrats bid farewell to Scholz – DW – 06/28/2025
Olaf Scholz reflected on his years in government as the Social Democratic Party congress bids farewell to the former chancellor. He also warned against having any illusions about Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans.
DW
a day ago
- DW
Ukraine updates: Russian strike kills 5 in Dnipropetrovsk – DW – 06/27/2025
A Russian missile strike killed five people and wounded 23 others in Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region. Meanwhile, Moscow summoned the German ambassador over the "persecution" of Russian journalists. DW has Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the German ambassador Alexander Graf Lambsdorff to announce retaliatory measures against the "persecution" of Russian journalists working in Germany, Russian state news agencies reported. The dispute began after the head of Russia's state media company in Berlin, Sergei Feoktistov, accused German police of confiscating his family's passports, prompting Moscow to threaten retaliation. According to RIA state news agency, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman had warned last week that Moscow was preparing countermeasures and urged German correspondents in Moscow to "get ready." Russia has repeatedly accused Western countries of mistreating journalists and imposing restrictions on foreign media. However, Russia itself has blocked access to dozens of Western media outlets and restricted coverage of the war in Ukraine. Deutsche Welle was banned in Russia in 2022, shortly after Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A Russian strike in Ukraine's industrial region of Dnipropetrovsk killed five people and injured 23 as Russian forces tried to gain a foothold in the region for the first time in the war. "Three people have been killed in an enemy attack. Fourteen people have been wounded," regional Governor Sergiy Lysak said of the attack on the town of Samar, outside the region's main city Dnipro. He later updated the number of fatalities and spoke of five dead and 23 injured. Russian forces attacked both Dnipro and Samar with missiles earlier this week, killing at least 23 people. Ukrainian military officials said previous Russian attacks near Samar had hit Ukrainian military training facilities. Separately, authorities in the northern Kharkiv region reported that one person was killed and three others injured in Russian attacks. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video We are following the latest developments concerning Russia's war in Ukraine. On Thursday, EU leaders agreed at their summit in Brussles to extend sanctions on Russia for an additional six months and called for even greater efforts to deliver more military support for Ukraine. The leaders also underlined the need to help Kyiv's defense industry, which can manufacture weapons and ammunition more quickly and cheaply than its European counterparts. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was present for the summit via videolink. He urged the European Council to send "a clear political signal" that Brussels supports Kyiv's efforts to join the European Union and repeated his call to crack down on Russian oil revenues. Meanwhile, Russia continues its air strikes on Ukraine and exerts further pressure on the front lines. Stay tuned for more news and analyses.
