Nataliya Petrovna pointed to a crater on the edge of a football field. Around it lay bits of twisted metal. From nearby came loud banging as residents fixed plywood to their damaged five-storey apartment block. Many of its windows were broken. \u201cThe last few days have been terrible. We could hear the drones buzzing over us. The one that exploded near the school opposite was a Russian Shahed. Maybe some kind of new type,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Petrovna lives in the eastern garrison city of Kramatorsk, in Donetsk province, about 15 miles from the frontline. The distance is just beyond the range of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, at least for now. But it is easily reachable by other kinds of enemy objects. They include air-dropped glide bombs, Grad rockets and unmanned kamikaze drones \u2013 now cruising Ukraine\u2019s skies in overwhelming numbers.<\/p>\n
Natalia Petrovna, 53, in front of a crater left by a Russian missile in Kramatorsk. \u2018The attacks are getting worse,\u2019 she said. Photograph: Alessio Mamo\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, the Kremlin has dramatically escalated its bombardment<\/a> of Ukrainian cities, including Kramatorsk. In his meeting on Friday with the US president in Alaska<\/a>, Vladimir Putin is likely to demand that Ukraine hands Kramatorsk over to Moscow, together with other Ukrainian-controlled territory Russia does not control. He claims four Ukrainian regions as well as Crimea. Ukraine\u2019s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has vowed not to give up land, saying the constitution forbids it.<\/p>\n Amid anxiety that the US will pressure Kyiv into an unjust peace deal, Russian troops have been pushing forward, trying to create facts on the ground. Earlier this week they reportedly broke through Ukrainian lines, advancing past the town of Dobropillia, north of the besieged city of Pokrovsk.<\/p>\n Map<\/a><\/p>\n At the same time, Russia has launched a record number of aerial attacks. Over the past week, from 4 to 10 August, the Russian military deployed more than 1,000 aerial bombs and nearly 1,400 kamikaze drones against Ukraine. The current record is 728 drones and 13 missiles sent in a single night in July, most directed at the western city of Lutsk. By autumn, German experts predict<\/a> Moscow could send 2,000 drones a day.<\/p>\n Once imported from Iran, they are now mass-produced in vast Russian factories. Footage shown on state media shows row of drones painted with dark camouflage inside the Alabuga compound. The plant is located in the Russian republic of Tatarstan, 1,050 miles from the front. Its main product is the Geran-2, an attack drone. One version carries a devastating 200-pound payload; several have artificial intelligence features.<\/p>\n A family in a centre for displaced people in the city of Pavlohrad. Photograph: Alessio Mamo\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Zelenskyy\u2019s government has been scrambling to find an answer to this growing swarm. European partners have promised to send more Patriot advanced air defence systems, costing more than $1bn each. Kyiv is currently believed to have six to eight of them. Patriots can intercept cruise and ballistic missiles but are not a cost-effective way of bringing down drones. A tech company founded by the former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt is reportedly building drones<\/a> with AI targeting technology.<\/p>\n Ukrainian manufacturers have been working on a solution, too: a cheap, scalable interceptor drone that can knock out incoming Shaheds. Last month Zelenskyy toured a factory<\/a> where they are being made. \u201cA clear task has been set for the manufacturers: Ukraine must be capable of deploying at least 1,000 interceptors per day within a defined timeframe,\u201d he told engineers and officials, saying they \u201cprotected lives\u201d.<\/p>\n In April the drone company, Wild Hornets<\/a>, released a prototype. One of its representatives said the new interceptor \u2013 known as Sting \u2013 worked against kamikaze, reconnaissance and other drone models. \u201cSting is a normal drone with a different body structure. It looks like a rocket. You can launch it from the ground. It\u2019s pretty fast. Its speed is about 300km an hour,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n Video of Wild Hornets interceptor drone at work<\/a>A Ukrainian interceptor drone as it approaches and destroys a Russian Gerbera decoy drone. Photograph: Gerber Antidrone Unit<\/p>\n They declined to say how many Shaheds String had destroyed, stressing that Ukraine faced many technical challenges. Russia has improved the design of its Shaheds, adding stealth features. It uses quicker jet-engine drones, capable of flying at an altitude of 3 miles. \u201cThey are not so easy to catch,\u201d the representative admitted. Additionally, Ukrainian air defence units had little experience of operating Sting, which took down its first Shahed in May<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth sides are scaling up. It\u2019s hard to say who is winning,\u201d the representative said. They acknowledged Russia had the edge when it came to cable-controlled fibre-optic drones, which are immune to electronic jamming and have been used in 2025 across the frontline. Russia deployed them for the first time last autumn in the battle for Kursk province<\/a>, after Ukrainian combat units seized a chunk of Russian territory.<\/p>\n Drones are a cheap and accurate way of destroying expensive battlefield equipment such as tanks, manufacturers say. Stanislav Gryshyn, the head of the General Cherry drone group<\/a>, said his company was developing a pioneering anti-Shahed weapon. The old method of bringing down Russian drones\u2013 firing at them with machine guns<\/a> from fields or the top of high buildings \u2013 no longer worked, he added.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Headlines Europe<\/p>\n A digest of the morning’s main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n