Russia is increasingly using many types of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) of unknown types to avoid Ukraine’s electronic warfare systems.
In an interview with Pravda news agency on October 5, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said that currently, in addition to the Shahed UAV, Russia is using other types of UAVs to increase combat effectiveness because the Shahed UAV is easily affected by Ukraine’s electronic warfare system.
Mr. Ihnat gave an example, in the air battle on the night of October 4 and early morning of October 5, 3 Russian Shahed UAVs were shot down, while the remaining 10 disappeared without a trace. According to Ukrainian officials, these could be other types of Russian UAVs whose types are currently unidentified.
In some cases, Russian aircraft may return to Russian or Belarusian territory.
To determine what the new Russian UAVs really are, Ukrainian military experts need to collect their wreckage.
Russia is increasingly using many types of cheap UAVs, including the Gerbera UAV produced by them in 3 versions: electronic reconnaissance, suicide or decoy. According to Defense Express sources , this UAV has a foam body and is assembled with quite low production quality.
Mr. Ihnat emphasized that Russia is using a large number of air attack assets to overwhelm Ukrainian air defense forces and conduct aerial reconnaissance.
The Ukrainian Air Force official also stressed an urgent request to the public: “If you encounter any suspicious objects resembling UAVs, please do not take any action on your own. Instead, promptly notify law enforcement agencies, state emergency services or military authorities.”
UAVs have played an important role in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has lasted for more than two years. Both sides have been working hard to develop UAVs to increase their effectiveness on the battlefield.
Ukraine has been particularly active in the production of UAVs to reduce its dependence on Western arms supplies. In the context of the West not agreeing to let Kiev carry out deep attacks on Russian territory with aid weapons, Ukraine announced that it had produced UAVs with an operating range of more than 1,000km.
In another development, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ivan Havryliuk said yesterday that Ukraine is putting pressure on Russian reserve forces by catching up with Russia’s firepower potential.
Specifically, he said, the ratio of artillery shells used on the Ukrainian-Russian front has decreased compared to last winter. “If last year it was 1:8, now it is 1:3.”
Last month, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskii and President Volodymyr Zelensky also said that Ukraine had responded to 1/2.5 of the artillery shells fired by Russia.
This could be due to many factors, one of which is that Kiev has begun to produce 155mm artillery shells itself, instead of relying entirely on aid from the West.
