Russia sharply increases use of jet-powered drones — Ukraine intercepts only 60%

In August alone, Russia struck Ukraine with more than 2,800 jet-powered attack drones — eight times more than the roughly 350 units used in June.

Moscow’s shift to faster, higher-flying unmanned strike weapons is increasingly overwhelming Ukraine’s air defense system and disrupting daily life across the country.

In the first three weeks of September, Russia launched another 2,100 jet-powered drones and 136 missiles at Ukraine. The strikes killed 288 people, including four children, Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhiy Koretsky said, as quoted by Reuters.

The new Geran-4 and Geran-5 modifications fly at speeds of 450 to 600 kilometers per hour at altitudes above 3.5 kilometers. According to Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat, this makes man-portable air defense systems and mobile fire teams virtually useless. Ukraine intercepts only about 60% of jet-powered drones, compared with more than 90% of the slower propeller-driven Shaheds that were used previously.

A shift in tactics

Russia has moved from nighttime strikes to around-the-clock attacks. Targets now include not only energy infrastructure but also grain ports, railways, warehouses, shopping centers, and residential areas. Hundreds of thousands of square meters of commercial property have been destroyed, and supplies of food, medicine, and everyday goods have been disrupted.

“The goal is to exhaust our air defenses,” a mobile anti-aircraft crew operator told Reuters, explaining that crews now have seconds to react instead of minutes.

According to Kyiv Post, Ukraine recorded around 180 uses of jet-powered drones throughout all of 2025. In August, Russia used approximately 15 times that annual figure in a single month.

The race for countermeasures

Ukrainian officials see a solution in domestically produced interceptor drones. Several Ukrainian companies are conducting combat tests of jet-powered interceptors: manufacturer Wild Hornets reports that a drone from the STING family has destroyed around ten Russian Geran-4s and several Geran-5s in recent days. However, scaling up production requires funds that Kyiv does not have. Volodymyr Zelensky announced an unexpected shortfall in defense funding of approximately EUR 23.6 billion for this year.

“I am convinced that in the short term we will resolve the issue of jet-powered drones. But, as with everything related to weapons procurement, it all comes down to financial resources,” Member of Parliament Fedir Venislavsky told Reuters.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian border guards published video footage of a Geran-5 interception, showing the drone exploding in the air “like a comet,” ArmyInform reports. The downed drone represented a small tactical success against the backdrop of a growing strategic problem: Russia is capable of producing thousands of low-cost drones, while Ukraine’s air defense options remain more expensive and harder to scale.