Exclusive: Russia uses low-cost drones to find the air defenses in Ukraine

According to a Ukrainian military espionage official, Russia has started using new, inexpensive drones in its long-range attacks on Ukraine in an effort to detect air defense, record any damage, and serve as decoys.

The person told Reuters that the two new drone types are made of foam plastic and plywood. Russia has employed them in five drone assaults in the last two to three weeks, including a nocturnal strike on Thursday.

To transmit photos to the Russian military, one kind of them is equipped with a camera and a SIM card from a Ukrainian mobile phone.

They pinpoint the locations of our mobile groups and the machine guns that have the power to destroy them. “They are attempting to obtain a map showing the locations of all our air defense systems,” a military espionage agency spokesman Andriy Cherniak stated.

The previously undisclosed information from Cherniak provides more proof that Russia is attempting to modify its strategies and experiment with new technologies in order to obtain the upper hand when it launches regular missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure and cities.

Russian aerial attacks have been utilizing Iranian-designed Shahed attack drones for a while now. First deployed in the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, these drones fly to their target and explode on impact.

Ukraine makes a concerted effort to hide the positions of its air defense systems, despite being on the receiving end of intensified Russian bombings on its power facilities since March.

Cherniak claimed that although the new Russian drones with cameras are not armed, they do fly in formation with other normal Shahed drones and bear a striking resemblance to them.

Cherniak continued, “The second new type of drone is being used as a decoy and either has no explosive charge or only a small one.”

Despite being nearly identical to a standard attack drone from the air, it still needs to be shot down in order to identify the location of Ukraine’s air defense systems.

According to him, the new drones are significantly less expensive to construct than air defense missiles, likely costing as low as $10,000 each despite their extended range.

According to him, the drones can fly up to 1,000 meters (3,000 feet), which puts them beyond of the reach of automatic rifles and machine guns.

Drone warfare technology has been put to the test during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as both sides have made substantial use of attack and reconnaissance drones in combat. In an effort to close the distance between itself and Moscow in terms of strike power, Kyiv has invested heavily in homegrown drone manufacturing, launching long-range drone assaults against Russian targets such as oil refineries.

Russia claims that Ukraine’s military is being undermined by its long-range airstrikes. According to Ukraine, Russian attacks have targeted residential buildings, seriously damaged residential energy infrastructure, and resulted in fatalities among civilians.

Around 18% of Ukrainian territory is currently occupied by Russian forces, who have been gaining ground in the east over the past few months, placing Kyiv on the defensive along a 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line.