Shahed drones – targeting Russian forces will attack in autumn – expert opinion
You can prevent Russian forces from attacking the Ukrainian coast and infrastructure by either receiving military equipment from the Allies or independently starting shelling of Shahed bases in Russia and beyond.
Russia began a massive attack on the southern regions of our country using Shahed unmanned aerial vehicles and was preparing a more serious operation to destroy the Black Sea and Danube ports in Ukraine. This opinion was expressed by the military-political expert of the information resistance group Alexander Kovalenko in an interview with Obozrevatel.
“The increase in the number of kamikaze drone attacks is due to their accumulation in preparation for Russia’s withdrawal from the grain agreement and the beginning of the systematic destruction of Ukraine’s Black Sea and Danube ports,” the expert said.
What is the situation with the production of Shahed in Russia?
The increase in the number of attacks by Shahed drones from the Russian Federation may indicate another fact. Most likely, the aggressor country either received a new large batch of UAVs from Iran or began to actively develop its own drone production. Alexander Kovalenko believes that it is still too early to talk about massive, well-functioning production.
“There is a possibility, but there are no facts yet. According to the latest data, the Tatarstan plant under construction will begin operations in the spring of 2024. Of course, today they can produce some limited series at home, but what is the situation with the Russians exactly with the number of copies available? “Shahed” will become clear with time,” the expert explained.
How the Armed Forces of Ukraine can respond to attacks by Russian forces using drones Shahed
According to Kovalenko, the Ukrainian armed forces do not yet have enough air defense systems to effectively protect their airspace from attacks. Therefore, in this situation, the number of enemy drones destroyed will depend on the number of equipment that partner countries will hand over to the Ukrainian military.
However, there are steps Ukraine can take on its own today.
“What we can do today to reduce Russian attacks is to attack the use of kamikaze drones and their launch sites,” the expert expressed his thoughts.
This particularly concerns the area of temporarily occupied Crimea and the Russian city of Kursk.
“That means we have to work to prevent this, I do not rule out such a development of events,” the expert said.
We would like to remind you that the Main Directorate of Intelligence reported how much Shahed is produced in Russia. The Kremlin has not given up hope of producing attack drones like the Shahed itself. The aggressor country plans to assemble 6,000 kamikaze drones by summer 2025.
We also wrote that on the night of September 14, the Russian Federation attacked Ukraine with kamikaze drones from three directions at once. Ukrainian air defense managed to destroy 17 Shahed-136/131 drones. Drone launches were registered in the direction of Nikolaev, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk and Sumy regions.
