Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP
- Russia launched more than 6,000 drones and missiles this fall, per The Wall Street Journal.
- Ukraine has used a combination of air defense systems and electronic warfare to counter the attacks.
- To overcome these tactics, Russia is increasing its use of decoy drones against Ukraine.
Russia fired four times as many drones and missiles at Ukraine in the past three months compared to the same time a year ago, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.
Using data from the Ukrainian Air Force Command, the report said that Russia launched more than 6,000 drones and missiles in the war during September, October, and November.
Ukraine has used a combination of air defense missile systems and electronic warfare technology to counter Russia’s attacks.
However, Russia has used a variety of tactics to overcome Ukrainian air defenses, including hitting Ukraine with a variety of drones and missiles at the same time.
It has also been using unarmed, fake drones in swarm attacks, Kyiv’s military intelligence agency, also known as the HUR, wrote in a statement shared to the Telegram messaging app in November.
These drones are smaller and cheaper than the Iranian-made Shahed-136 one-way attack drone that is often used by Russia against Ukraine.
Named “Parody” by the Ukrainians, the decoy drones apparently mimic the radar signature of a Shahed to mislead Kyiv’s air defenses.
Analysts believe the record drone strikes may be designed to damage Ukraine’s air defenses ahead of a major attack on the country’s energy infrastructure.
“The Ukrainians are going to have a difficult winter,” George Barros, team lead for Russia and geospatial intelligence at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) told Sky News.
“They’re very resilient and they’ve found ways to mitigate the effect of Russian attacks, but at the same time the Russians have also learnt — they’ve managed to find more effective and creative ways of penetrating Ukraine’s air defense.”
On Sunday, the Ukrainian air force said it shot down 28 out of 74 drones launched by Russia in a night attack targeting Ukraine. A further 46 drones were “lost,” the air force said.
Russia has also been stepping up its use of missiles. Late last month, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced more details of the’Oreshnik’ hypersonic missile, days after it was first used to strike a munitions factory in Ukraine’s Dnipro region.
He said the destructive elements of the missile reach over 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and that it had been used as a response to Ukraine’s Western allies allowing their long-range missiles to be used against Russia.
