Russia outpacing Ukraine's air defences with daily use of new jet-powered drones

Russia fired its new rapid, jet-powered drones against Ukraine every day throughout August, BBC Verify analysis of Ukrainian Air Force data has found, escalating its use of a weapon that Kyiv's air defences are struggling to deal with.

It marked the first time that daily attacks by Moscow's new upgraded Geran drones were recorded in Ukrainian Air Force data. The growing use of jet-propelled and other varieties of drones prompted President Volodymyr Zelensky to condemn what he called an unfolding "horror" over the skies of Kyiv.

Ukraine's military recently told the BBC that jet-powered drone attacks grew from 350 in June to 1,600 in July and 2,800 in August. In five of the nightly attacks in August, these drones outnumbered the older, slower models.

"The reason for turning to jet-powered drones is that they are much faster than the previous generation and it makes it much more difficult for Ukraine to intercept them," said Dr Marina Miron, an expert on military technology at King's College London.

The upgraded munitions can cruise at more than 300mph, significantly faster than older models and well beyond the top speed of Kyiv's interceptors. The drones are powered by turbojet engines, some of which, according to Ukrainian military intelligence, are sourced from China.

According to Zelensky, the drones were used as part of a wave of attacks that killed at least 12 people and injured 20 more on 1 September. Six of the casualties were railway workers after a depot was hit in Kyiv.

Earlier this year Ukraine showed relative success in countering Russian drones and was intercepting 94% of long-range drones, according to Zelensky . But the speed of the newer drones has prompted the latest round in Kyiv and Moscow's arms race. On 10 August, Ukraine's deputy head of military intelligence, Maj Gen Vadym Skibitskyi, said his forces needed new interceptor missiles "capable of matching [jet-drones'] speed".

Four Ukrainian companies have reportedly started testing missiles that can shoot down the new Geran models, officials in Kyiv recently told reporters. The country's new defence minister, Yevhenii Khmara, has tasked them with producing "thousands of units" as quickly as possible.

Russia also had an economic incentive to invest in the jet-powered drones. The increased speed and manoeuvrability of these models means the line between them and more expensive cruise missiles has become "blurred", said John Hardie of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank focused on national security and foreign policy.

"Long-range one-way attack drones are basically a poor man's cruise missile," he said. "The more you add capability to a drone, the less meaningful the distinction between the drone and a lower-end cruise missile."

But the analyst organisation Conflict Armament Research emphasised that jet-drones are not yet as advanced as cruise missiles. It said the munitions have a shorter attack range, carry much smaller warheads and are more susceptible to jamming systems.

Meanwhile, satellite images appear to show Moscow is redesigning key facilities dedicated to fighting the war in Ukraine to host jet-powered drones, with longer rails associated with the munitions visible at an entirely new base at Tsymbulova in the Oryol region.

Multiple launch sites appear to have been built at the facility, which is around 109 miles (175 km) from the Ukrainian border.

Since the facility became operational, Tsymbulova appears to have become a key centre for Russian drone attacks. Oryol region, where the Tsymbulova base is located, was not mentioned as a drone launch site in Air Force reports before September 2024, but by August 2026 it was named in almost every attack.

The proliferation of jet-powered drones comes as BBC Verify found that Russia is now striking Ukraine with complex attacks involving hundreds of drones and missiles about once a week.

The increase in the size of the strikes is being powered by Moscow's shift towards combining a "greater variety of munitions" - including jet-powered and decoy drones - with expensive ballistic missiles that are extremely difficult to intercept, analyst Michael Bohnert of the RAND think tank told BBC Verify. Kyiv's data shows that Moscow is now using over 15 times more drones per attack than it was four years ago.

Bohnert added that the tactically complicated nature of the assaults, coupled with a global shortage of air defence systems capable of halting ballistic missiles partly caused by the US-Israeli war with Iran, has led to falling interception rates by Ukraine.

Ukraine's Air Force data showed a drop in interceptions of ballistic missiles up to the end of July. In August, Kyiv mostly stopped publishing the figures that would show its interception rate.

Related topics