As Russian drones rain down on Ukraine, this unit has one crucial task: shoot them all down

“The noise lasts for hours and it drives you mad,” said Svitlana Kuksa, 48, a resident of the Darnytskyi district who lost her home in a huge drone attack in July that was among the deadliest of the war.

This summer, Ukraine has endured aerial attacks at a scale unseen since Russia invaded in 2022. In July alone, 6,200 Shahed-type drones were unleashed, more than during any previous month. It was also the deadliest month for civilians in more than three years.

Last month, another 23 people were killed in the capital in the second largest attack of the war, while 60,000 were left without electricity after power facilities were hit in the country’s north and south on Sunday. President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to retaliate by ordering more strikes on infrastructure deep inside Russia.

The need for a ceasefire is more urgent than ever, yet peace talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US have hit a deadlock since last month’s Alaska summit. During a visit to China last week, President Vladimir Putin suggested peace talks could be held in Moscow, but Ukraine immediately rejected the idea as “intentionally unacceptable”.

European leaders are increasingly concerned that Russia will mount a new offensive now that 100,000 soldiers have been relocated to the frontline outside the embattled city of Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region. There is little sign of any respite for Ukraine.

The bombardment of Ukraine’s cities is only likely to worsen as autumn approaches – previous years have seen Russia target energy and infrastructure, cutting off heat and electricity in an effort to pressure civilians into submission. Moscow has also significantly increased drone production – it is now able to produce as many Shahed and Garpiya drones in three days as it could in a month last year, according to Ukrainian and western military intelligence. Some estimates say Russia will be able to strike Ukraine with 2,000 drones a night by November. The largest attack so far, in early July, involved 728 drones and 13 missiles.

Like the Iranian-designed Shahed, the newer Garpiya – made with Chinese engines and parts – can deliver explosive payloads. Both are also used as decoys to overwhelm and confuse Ukrainian air defence systems, to pave the way for more expensive, often more destructive missiles. Kyiv says Russia’s ballistic missile production has increased by at least 66% over the past year.

Without a peace deal, Ukraine will need to innovate continuously to protect its population from both the increasing size of Russia’s attacks and the growing sophistication of its weapons. Kyiv is racing to secure more western systems such as Patriots and Iris-Ts, while also adapting homemade drones and mobile air defences to fill the gap. Behind the stalemate, the war has evolved into a hi-tech arms race.

At a secret location among sunflower and wheat fields near Kyiv, a voluntary mobile air defence team practises on a makeshift firing range, scattered with tyres and burned-out cars full of bullet holes. Teams like this are the frontline of defence for Ukraine’s cities, part of a network of air defence that works round the clock to intercept drones and missiles before they can reach homes and infrastructure.

“This is not a trench war like the second world war but a war of technology,” said the chief of staff of a mobile air defence unit in the Kyiv region who goes by the call-sign Mavka, 39. “Russia improves their weapons, we improve ours. Progress moves fast in war, but it comes with a high cost in lives.”

The Shahed drones, notorious for their role in Russia’s persistent attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and energy facilities, have evolved since they were first used in September 2022. They used to fly at low altitudes to avoid radar detection but now operate at more than 3,000 metres, out of range of anti-aircraft machine guns. They fly increasingly faster and change their trajectory in flight to confuse air defence systems.

“Every drone we down, we study to see what has changed. They use new materials, new devices, add more explosives,” said Mavka.

With a warhead upgraded from 40kg to 90kg, Shaheds now hold enough explosives to “destroy a whole building”. “That’s partly why civilian casualties have risen,” she said.

In the first half of this year, 6,754 civilians were killed or injured – a 54% rise from the same period in 2024, according to the UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine.

Mavka’s Pereiaslav volunteer territorial defence unit combines old and new technology to fight the evolving threat – they downed two drones the night before we speak at their base and are called to their stations by sirens as soon as we finish. Browning machine guns from the 1940s sit alongside modern telescopic night-vision lenses and iPad radar apps. Yet they face increasing personal risk: the drones can now be loaded with thermobaric warheads which ignite massive fireballs and pressure waves, chemical payloads and delayed explosives.

To combat the ever-larger waves of drones, they say they need interceptor drones – a relatively new technology that is low-cost and low-risk. Some types of interceptors have been in use since last year, but the technology is improving quickly. They are fast and lightweight, they hunt targets in mid-air and either ram or detonate near them. Some  are equipped with warheads or use nets to physically trap and bring down enemy drones.

They have a high rate of success in tests when it comes to taking down Shahed or Garpiya drones. Zelensky ordered the rapid production of 1,000 interceptor drones a day in late July to regain the defensive edge. “We won’t be able to stop the attacks completely when we have them, but we can reduce the damage,” Mavka said.

Nowhere is this constant cycle of action and counteraction more stark than at Unwave, a drone and electronic warfare facility at another secret location near Kyiv. Sirens whirr throughout our visit due to a Russian reconnaissance drone overhead. They say it takes Russia three months to catch up with new developments, and vice versa.

Electronic warfare systems jam or hijack enemy signals, providing crucial cover for troops and critical infrastructure. At the front, the prevalence of first-person-view drones, which kill more soldiers and destroy more equipment on both sides than any other weapons system in the war, has made most vehicle movement impossible. Each brigade now has its own electronic warfare division, with the systems highly portable, on car roof racks, in briefcase-like containers and even in backpacks.

“Going anywhere near the front now without one of these would be like a soldier going to a trench without a helmet or flak jacket – a suicide mission,” said Taras, product manager at the electronic warfare facility.

While early work at Unwave relied on Chinese components, now almost everything is produced domestically and demand has skyrocketed. The factory made 500 drones a month in 2023 and is now reported to produce 5,000, doubling output since the start of the year. The facility has expanded from a single room to filling an entire building, and yet production still struggles to keep pace with battlefield needs. Drones have helped Ukraine be self-reliant amid western ammunition shortages and adapt to an evolving battlefield. This has transformed the country into the world’s largest producer of tactical and long-range unmanned vehicles, says Ukraine’s defence minister.

Without a ceasefire, who? Taras believes Ukraine can keep innovating fast enough to keep pace, but the main threat is economic. If Europe or the US cuts financial support, research and development could stall, making it hard to take tech to the next level and leaving civilians and defenders vulnerable. “We don’t have the luxury of spending years on research and funding – we have a few months,” he said. “But this should not be seen as a disadvantage. It is an important driver.”

The cost of failure can be seen in attacks such as the one in July that made Kuksa homeless. She recalled the night her home was destroyed as people ran screaming from apartments that were soon reduced to rubble. More than 300 drones overwhelmed air defence systems before two missile strikes destroyed her five-storey residential building.

“The attack started with drones and I hid in the corridor,” said Kuksa. “At 3.30am I was so tired I went to lie down in bed, but there was an odd silence. Then, out of the blue, I could see a bright light from the window. I thought I must have already died.”

Thirty-two people, including five children, were killed that night. “So many children died – why am I still alive? I don’t understand why we couldn’t stop the enemy. Our western partners should have helped us equip ourselves better so we can protect our people. The cost of failure is enormous.”

Photograph by Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images