Ukraine is managing to defend itself against Russia’s terrifying new war strategy very effectively, according to the UK.
Moscow launched approximately 1,700 drones – also known as One Way Attack Uncrewed Aerial Systems – towards Ukraine throughout December.
But, the Ukrainian army has managed to shoot down more than half of these drones while the rest were driven off course.
In their latest update on X, the UK’s ministry of defence (MoD) wrote: “The Ukrainian Air Force reported that 53% of Russian OWA UAS were shot down, while the remainder were disrupted using electronic warfare or had already flown off course without causing a significant threat.”
The MoD said in an update before Christmas that most of these drones are decoys meant to “complicate the Ukrainian defensive effort through saturating or confusing the radar picture” and exhaust Kyiv’s aerial defence systems.
But the drones can still carry up to 5kg of explosives, meaning they are “no less dangerous when they reach a target”.
The UK intelligence said that Russia uses the devices able to “maintain pressure” on Ukraine while it builds up its stocks of long-range missiles at the same time.
Moscow did deploy fewer drones in December – having launched 2,300 in November – which the MoD said is the “first time” such a decline has been seen since March to April 2024.
However, the intelligence officials say this decrease is not due to Ukraine’s attacks.
“It is likely that weather factors impacted operations early in the month, possibly evidenced through several nights of waves greater than 100 OWA UAS that followed periods of particularly low or no activity,” the MoD said in their Monday update.
The intelligence officials added: “Various factors can impact the monthly launch rates positively or negatively, however it remains likely that Russia can sustain numbers in excess of at least 1,500 per month.”
Still, according to Forbes, a Russian blogger lamented over the weekend that “our drone operations are much weaker” due to the intense Ukrainian radio jamming and poor quality control in Russian manufacturing.
The Russian president himself, Vladimir Putin, also expressed frustration with Ukraine’s drones last month after the weapons struck buildings in Kazan. No injured were officially reported.
He pledged: “Whoever, and however much they try to destroy, they will face many times more destruction themselves and will regret what they are trying to do in our country.”