Russia’s record-breaking drone attacks on Ukrainian cities last week mark a dangerous escalation in the war. Beyond terrorizing civilians, these strikes are strategically aimed at exhausting Ukraine’s air defenses. In a comment for The Wall Street Journal, Oleksandr Humeniuk, an air-force expert at the Sahaidachnyi Security Center, highlighted the serious implications of this tactic.
“Russia sends huge numbers of drones to exhaust the air defense, then follows it up with missiles,” O.Humeniuk explained. “That makes it very hard to do differentiated detection and interception.”
According to him, Ukraine is sometimes forced to deploy fighter jets to intercept drones – a move that consumes valuable aviation resources and puts pilots at risk.
Mr. Humeniuk also warned that Russia may soon launch drone assaults involving over 1,000 UAVs at once. Such an escalation could overwhelm Ukraine’s air defense systems not just tactically, but strategically. Without rapid advances in counter-drone technologies, Ukraine’s defenses may struggle to withstand this sheer volume of threats.
You can read the full article in The Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/russia-intensifies-its-drone-war-on-civilian-areas-reporting-from-kyiv-adaffb2d