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\n As Russia\u2019s war machine grinds forward in eastern Ukraine, there is another offensive being waged far beyond the front line. Russia is ramping up nightly drone attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure, and as it rapidly increases its production of those weapons its strikes are intensifying.\n <\/p>\n
\n Many of the drones aren\u2019t particularly fast or high-tech, but they are cheap enough for the Kremlin to launch more than 700 in one night, in an effort to overwhelm Ukraine\u2019s air defenses and decimate civilian morale, experts say.\n <\/p>\n
\n After obtaining Iranian designs for Shahed attack drones, Russia built its own massive factory<\/a> to churn out thousands of these weapons each month. Its evolving tactics are forcing Ukraine to fight back with more expensive ammunition and innovations, as less costly methods of defense become less effective.\n <\/p>\n \n The rapid increase in drone strikes shows how warfare has evolved to rely on these unmanned autonomous vehicles.\n <\/p>\n \n Ukraine and Russia have been driven to improve drone capabilities to compensate for deficiencies in air force capabilities, a dynamic that isn\u2019t applicable to all Western powers. But experts say that the United States and its European NATO allies are actively working to improve drones and counter-drone operations to retain an advantage in any future conflicts.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cNATO will probably end up using drones on a large scale. Not at the same scale as Russia and Ukraine, because we\u2019ve got these massive air forces that we\u2019ve invested in and that can strike with a lot of power very quickly \u2013 but as a complement to that,\u201d Robert Tollast, a research fellow focused on land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n Taiwan is already looking into developing large numbers of cheap attack drones, Tollast said. Non-state actors across the globe and drug cartels are also increasingly relying on drones. \u201cThese are going to pose a huge challenge to unprepared armies around the world,\u201d he added.\n <\/p>\n \n This is how Russia\u2019s drone campaign operates \u2013 and how Ukraine is working to fight back.\n <\/p>\n \n Russia is moving toward producing more than 6,000 Shahed-type drones each month, Ukraine\u2019s Defense Intelligence told CNN. And it\u2019s much cheaper to produce the attack drones inside Russia compared to earlier in the war, when Moscow was purchasing them from Tehran.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIn 2022, Russia paid an average of $200,000 for one such drone,\u201d a Ukrainian Defense Intelligence source said. \u201cIn 2025, that number came down to approximately $70,000,\u201d due to the large-scale production at the Alabuga drone factory in Russia\u2019s Tatarstan region.\n <\/p>\n \n But cost estimates vary greatly \u2013 the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a DC-based think tank, found that estimates for Shahed-136s ranged from $20,000 to $50,000 per drone. By comparison, a single surface-to-air missile interceptor can cost more than $3 million.\n <\/p>\n \n That relatively low cost makes it possible for the Kremlin to ramp up its nightly drone attacks, as well as conduct more frequent large-scale attacks. Earlier in the war, major missile-and-drone salvos happened roughly once a month. Now, they occur every eight days on average, according to an analysis<\/a> by CSIS.\n <\/p>\n \n To many civilians, the constant threat of drone attacks is terrifying.\n <\/p>\n \n Kyiv resident Bohdana Zhupanyna was heavily pregnant when her family\u2019s apartment was obliterated by a Russian drone strike in July.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI\u2019m trying to calm down, because such stress at nine months of pregnancy is very dangerous,\u201d Zhupanyna, who has since delivered her baby safely, told CNN in the immediate aftermath of the strike. \u201cI lost a lot in this damn war. My father was killed by the hands of Russians, my apartment was destroyed by the hands of Russians, and my mother was almost killed by the hands of Russians.\u201d\n <\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2025-07-24t072100z-2040793376-rc2vsfabx3e0-rtrmadp-3-ukraine-crisis-attack-odesa.JPG\")
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