Latest news with #ShahedDrones
CTV News
2 days ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Russia and Ukraine trade more long-range drone attacks that are a hallmark of their war
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces launched 363 Shahed and decoy drones as well as eight missiles at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said Friday, claiming that air defences stopped all but four of the drones and downed six cruise missiles. Russia's Defence Ministry, meanwhile, said that 39 Ukrainian drones were downed in several regions overnight, including 19 over the Rostov region and 13 over the Volgograd region. Both regions lie east of Ukraine. Long-range drone strikes have been a hallmark of the war, now in its fourth year. The race by both sides to develop increasingly sophisticated and deadlier drones has turned the war into a testing ground for new weaponry. The Ukrainian air force said that 359 incoming drones were either intercepted or electronically jammed. The Ukrainian attack forced three Russian airports to briefly suspend flights, officials said. The authorities also briefly closed the Crimean Bridge overnight as drones targeted Crimea. Neither Russia nor Ukraine reported any major damage or casualties in the attacks. Russia manufactures Shahed drones based on an original Iranian model, churning out thousands of them at a plant in the Tatarstan region. It has upgraded the Shaheds with its own innovations, including bigger warheads. They are known as suicide drones because they nosedive into targets and explode on impact, like a missile. The incessant buzzing of the propeller-driven Shahed drones is unnerving for anyone under its flight path because no one on the ground knows exactly when or where the weapon will hit. Being outgunned and outnumbered in the war against its bigger neighbor, Ukraine also has developed its own cutting-edge drone technology, including long-range sea drones, and has trained thousands of drone pilots. Smaller, short-range drones are used by both sides on the battlefield and in areas close to the roughly 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) front line. Those drones, fitted with onboard cameras that give their operators a real-time view of possible targets, have also struck civilian areas. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said in a report published Thursday that short-range drone attacks killed at least 395 civilians and injured 2,635 between the start of the war and last April. Almost 90% of the attacks were by the Russian armed forces, it reported. The strikes not only spread fear among civilians but also severely disrupt daily life by restricting movement and limiting access to food and medical services, the report said. ___ Illia Novikov, The Associated Press
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia and Ukraine trade more long-range drone attacks that are a hallmark of their war
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces launched 363 Shahed and decoy drones as well as eight missiles at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said Friday, claiming that air defenses stopped all but four of the drones and downed six cruise missiles. Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said 39 Ukrainian drones were downed in several regions overnight, including 19 over the Rostov region and 13 over the Volgograd region. Both regions lie east of Ukraine. Long-range drone strikes have been a hallmark of the war, now in its fourth year. The race by both sides to develop increasingly sophisticated and deadlier drones has turned the war into a testing ground for new weaponry. The Ukrainian air force said that 359 incoming drones were either intercepted or electronically jammed. Ukraine is employing new countermeasures against Russia's escalation of combined missile and drone attacks, officials say. Instead of relying on ground-based mobile teams to shoot down Shaheds, Ukraine is deploying interceptor drones it has developed. The Ukrainian attack forced three Russian airports to briefly suspend flights, officials said. The authorities also briefly closed the Crimean Bridge overnight as drones targeted Crimea. Neither Russia nor Ukraine reported any major damage or casualties in the attacks. Russia manufactures Shahed drones based on an original Iranian model, churning out thousands of them at a plant in the Tatarstan region. It has upgraded the Shaheds with its own innovations, including bigger warheads. They are known as suicide drones because they nosedive into targets and explode on impact, like a missile. The incessant buzzing of the propeller-driven Shahed drones is unnerving for anyone under its flight path because no one on the ground knows exactly when or where the weapon will hit. Being outgunned and outnumbered in the war against its bigger neighbor, Ukraine also has developed its own cutting-edge drone technology, including long-range sea drones, and has trained thousands of drone pilots. Smaller, short-range drones are used by both sides on the battlefield and in areas close to the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. Those drones, fitted with onboard cameras that give their operators a real-time view of possible targets, have also struck civilian areas. The U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said in a report published Thursday that short-range drone attacks killed at least 395 civilians and injured 2,635 between the start of the war and last April. Almost 90% of the attacks were by the Russian armed forces, it reported. The strikes not only spread fear among civilians but also severely disrupt daily life by restricting movement and limiting access to food and medical services, the report said. ___ Samya Kullab in Kyiv, Ukraine contributed. ___ Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Russia and Ukraine trade more long-range drone attacks that are a hallmark of their war
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces launched 363 Shahed and decoy drones as well as eight missiles at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said Friday, claiming that air defenses stopped all but four of the drones and downed six cruise missiles. Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said that 39 Ukrainian drones were downed in several regions overnight, including 19 over the Rostov region and 13 over the Volgograd region. Both regions lie east of Ukraine. Long-range drone strikes have been a hallmark of the war, now in its fourth year . The race by both sides to develop increasingly sophisticated and deadlier drones has turned the war into a testing ground for new weaponry . The Ukrainian air force said that 359 incoming drones were either intercepted or electronically jammed. The Ukrainian attack forced three Russian airports to briefly suspend flights, officials said. The authorities also briefly closed the Crimean Bridge overnight as drones targeted Crimea. Neither Russia nor Ukraine reported any major damage or casualties in the attacks. Russia manufactures Shahed drones based on an original Iranian model, churning out thousands of them at a plant in the Tatarstan region. It has upgraded the Shaheds with its own innovations, including bigger warheads. They are known as suicide drones because they nosedive into targets and explode on impact, like a missile. The incessant buzzing of the propeller-driven Shahed drones is unnerving for anyone under its flight path because no one on the ground knows exactly when or where the weapon will hit. Being outgunned and outnumbered in the war against its bigger neighbor, Ukraine also has developed its own cutting-edge drone technology, including long-range sea drones , and has trained thousands of drone pilots. Smaller, short-range drones are used by both sides on the battlefield and in areas close to the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. Those drones, fitted with onboard cameras that give their operators a real-time view of possible targets, have also struck civilian areas. The U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said in a report published Thursday that short-range drone attacks killed at least 395 civilians and injured 2,635 between the start of the war and last April. Almost 90% of the attacks were by the Russian armed forces, it reported. The strikes not only spread fear among civilians but also severely disrupt daily life by restricting movement and limiting access to food and medical services, the report said. ___ Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at
Associated Press
2 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Russia and Ukraine trade more long-range drone attacks that are a hallmark of their war
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces launched 363 Shahed and decoy drones as well as eight missiles at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said Friday, claiming that air defenses stopped all but four of the drones and downed six cruise missiles. Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said that 39 Ukrainian drones were downed in several regions overnight, including 19 over the Rostov region and 13 over the Volgograd region. Both regions lie east of Ukraine. Long-range drone strikes have been a hallmark of the war, now in its fourth year. The race by both sides to develop increasingly sophisticated and deadlier drones has turned the war into a testing ground for new weaponry. The Ukrainian air force said that 359 incoming drones were either intercepted or electronically jammed. The Ukrainian attack forced three Russian airports to briefly suspend flights, officials said. The authorities also briefly closed the Crimean Bridge overnight as drones targeted Crimea. Neither Russia nor Ukraine reported any major damage or casualties in the attacks. Russia manufactures Shahed drones based on an original Iranian model, churning out thousands of them at a plant in the Tatarstan region. It has upgraded the Shaheds with its own innovations, including bigger warheads. They are known as suicide drones because they nosedive into targets and explode on impact, like a missile. The incessant buzzing of the propeller-driven Shahed drones is unnerving for anyone under its flight path because no one on the ground knows exactly when or where the weapon will hit. Being outgunned and outnumbered in the war against its bigger neighbor, Ukraine also has developed its own cutting-edge drone technology, including long-range sea drones, and has trained thousands of drone pilots. Smaller, short-range drones are used by both sides on the battlefield and in areas close to the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. Those drones, fitted with onboard cameras that give their operators a real-time view of possible targets, have also struck civilian areas. The U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said in a report published Thursday that short-range drone attacks killed at least 395 civilians and injured 2,635 between the start of the war and last April. Almost 90% of the attacks were by the Russian armed forces, it reported. The strikes not only spread fear among civilians but also severely disrupt daily life by restricting movement and limiting access to food and medical services, the report said. ___ Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at
Globe and Mail
6 days ago
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
What it's like to be inside a Kyiv bomb shelter as Russia's air assault escalates
It was early in the morning of Day 1,216 of the war for Ukraine, and somewhere in the darkness of the bomb shelter a woman was sobbing. We were in, by Ukrainian standards, only slightly more danger than on other recent nights. According to the Ukrainian military, there were 170 Shahed explosive drones in the skies over the country at that moment, including 10 to 12 buzzing above Kyiv and this city's three million residents. We'd all been through this many times before. I had dashed into this exact shelter – a parking garage under a hotel in the centre of the Ukrainian capital – on the first night of the Russian invasion, Feb. 24, 2022, and more than a dozen times since. I'd spent many more nights in Kyiv listening to the sky from the comfort of my bed, too tired – and frankly more than a little too blasé after more than three years of war – to move somewhere safer. But these days, as Russia escalates its missile-and-drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital, such nonchalance can be deadly. Just six days earlier, 30 people had been killed and 172 injured in one of Kyiv's worst nights of the war. Still, Russia's nighttime air assaults are so common that I and many others had slept through the initial air-raid alarm at 11:53 p.m. local time Sunday night, as well as the grating buzz of Shahed drones that followed. But just before 1 a.m., I was awakened by the booms of anti-aircraft fire somewhere nearby. That meant the Shaheds were close. It was time to get below ground. I jogged down five flights of stairs to the lobby – many Kyiv hotels now charge higher rates for rooms on lower floors – then followed other guests down the zigzag of car ramps into the garage. With Ukraine's stores of anti-aircraft missiles dwindling – the country's military is drawing down supplies sent by the Biden administration, with no new weapons deliveries authorized since Donald Trump returned to the White House – those operating the U.S.-made Patriot missile batteries that guard the capital know they have to hold their fire against the Shaheds, and rely on older, cheaper anti-aircraft guns to deal with the drones. The Patriots, Kyiv's defenders know, will likely be needed against the faster-moving ballistic and cruise missiles that often follow the waves of drones. But the drones are also becoming more dangerous, and harder to hit. The Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 models that Iran has been sending since early in the war have been replaced by modernized versions produced inside Russia. Many of the Russian-made drones – rebranded the Geran-2 and Geran-3, though everyone in Ukraine still calls them Shaheds – have jet engines, giving them higher top speeds. Some appear to have the capability to suddenly shift direction and dive-bomb onto targets. Opinion: Ukraine showed that drones are the new bullets. Why doesn't Canada get this? Just as concerning for those living through the air attacks is the sense that the world is looking away, distracted by the swirling dramas of American domestic politics and the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran. But Russian President Vladimir Putin is unquestionably still fixated on Ukraine. In the parking garage-turned-shelter, a few dozen of us lay nervously sprawled on beanbag chairs that the hotel has added over the years, as the size and comfort of on-site shelter have become as important a feature for any Kyiv hotel as its fitness centre or room-service menu. The only light in our underground refuge came from the green exit signs that glowed over the doors leading to the elevators and stairs. Those who couldn't sleep stared at their phones, doomscrolling for updates via the Telegram channels that monitor Ukraine skies each night. Every now and again someone's mobile would shout a warning: 'Attention – increased air threat in your area,' meaning one of the Shaheds was passing directly above us. The woman sobbing sobbed even harder into her friend's shoulder. Those who were snoring carried on unbothered. It was the third such mass attack – hundreds of drones, followed by volleys of missiles – over the past two weeks. Though I'd been out of Ukraine for the two previous assaults, the effect on those who were here is visible. People walk about in the morning like zombies, as if they haven't slept for days on end. The exhaustion is compounded by a spreading sense of hopelessness – that after 40 months of war, there's no end in sight. Russian troops continue to press forward along the 1,200-kilometre-long front line, and whatever hopes there were that Mr. Trump might deliver a quick end to the war have evaporated. The U.S. President has instead taken to blaming Ukraine for Mr. Putin's decision to invade this country. Through the night, my friends in the city messaged to say they were physically safe, even as their spirits were cracking. More than one told me they weren't sure how much longer they could remain in Kyiv. At 2:27 a.m., an escalated ballistic missile threat was declared. The second phase of the attack was beginning. Seconds later, or so it felt, a series of thuds echoed through our parking garage shelter. Kharkiv's underground ballet revival gives Ukrainians a break from war Finally, at 3:34 a.m., the all-clear siren sounded and the dozens of us who had camped in the parking garage for the previous 2½ hours trudged back upstairs to our rooms and our beds. But the respite proved cruelly short. Exactly 10 minutes later, the warning sounded again. Two fast-moving cruise missiles were en route to Kyiv. There wasn't time to get back to the shelter, so I crouched in the hallway outside my hotel room until I heard a pair of distant booms. It was over, and I could finally go back to sleep. But in the lottery that is living in Ukraine in Year 4 of this war, my relief meant someone else's nightmare. One of the two cruise missiles – the last in an overnight barrage that included 352 drones and 16 missiles, most of them aimed at Kyiv – had slammed into a five-storey apartment building in the western part of the city. The missile had struck the building head-on, as if it were somehow the intended target, even though the middle-class apartment block was clearly anything but a military facility. On Monday morning, rugs and blankets poked out from the broken cement in the deep U-shaped hole the missile had blown into people's homes and lives. Helmeted rescue workers were still digging at the ruins of the building several hours after the attack. Suddenly, around noon, the digging came to a halt, and the rescuers waved for a crane to lift an orange plastic stretcher toward their position on what was once the second floor of the building. A body, the seventh that day, had been found. Later, the death toll rose to nine. Others may still be buried beneath the rubble. Svitlana Kyryliuk, a 35-year-old mother of one, watched the rescuers numbly from the street below. She and her family had just returned to their apartment in the same building – from their shelter in a nearby parking garage – after the 3:34 a.m. all-clear. They didn't have time to react to the second siren before the missile slammed into the north side of their building. She and her family lived on the south side, and aside from cuts and bruises were unharmed. But she didn't see how they would possibly get any sleep tonight.
