But with long-standing sanctions packages in place \u2013 and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calling on Wednesday for even tougher sanctions still \u2013 where does Russia\u2019s seemingly endless supply of drones come from?<\/p>\n
“We\u2019ve really seen a surge in the use of these long-range drones,” Fabian Hoffmann, a military technology expert at the University of Oslo, told FOX Business.<\/p>\n
HEGSETH TEARS UP RED TAPE, ORDERS PENTAGON TO BEGIN DRONE SURGE AT TRUMP’S COMMAND<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n A Shahed-type drone flies in the sky over Kharkiv, Ukraine, on June 7, 2025. (Pavlo Pakhomenko\/NurPhoto via \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n “They\u2019re easy to manufacture, basically a wooden construct with lightweight material and a warhead inside it. The biggest bottleneck in production will be procuring the conventional explosives, but the satellite navigation system, the inertial measurement unit, these things are fairly easy for Russia to produce or to get in the international markets.”\u00a0<\/p>\n “The drones are not the same high military grade that we are used to in the West, but it is good enough,” he said.<\/p>\n Russia initially imported a couple of different Shahed drone variants from Iran<\/a>, and when they saw how effective they could be, Moscow set up a licensed production agreement, which involved Iranian engineers and drone experts establishing production plants in Russia and importing many of the parts they needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n First responders react to drone strikes on Chuhuiv, Ukraine. (East2West)<\/p>\n JACK KEANE: PUTIN WANTS TRUMP \u2018SO FRUSTRATED\u2019 THAT HE STOPS AIDING UKRAINE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n But the production systems rapidly evolved, with Russia developing its own version of the Shahed, called the Geran-2, which comes with upgrades.\u00a0<\/p>\n “There have been at least six fairly major adaptations that the Russians have made to the Shahed drones, including just painting them black instead of white so it is more difficult to shoot down at night,” Hoffmann says.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Russia is now the Shahed expert, even though the drone comes originally from Iran.”\u00a0<\/p>\n The drones that Russia is firing in such huge numbers at Ukraine are slower and less powerful than conventional missiles, but their number one purpose is to saturate the skies and overwhelm defense systems. Ukraine has to use expensive interceptors to target the Shahed or Geran drones, and its defensive arsenal can quickly become depleted.<\/p>\n Zelenskyy said that on Tuesday night, “dozens of enemy targets were downed” using interceptor drones, and that his country is “scaling up” the interceptor drone technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the start of the week, President Donald Trump promised to send more defensive weapons to Ukraine in the face of the renewed Russian aerial onslaught, just days after the Pentagon had paused weapons shipments, citing concerns that U.S. stockpiles might be running low.\u00a0<\/p>\n US WILL \u2018HAVE TO\u2019 SEND WEAPONS TO UKRAINE, TRUMP SAYS DAYS AFTER PENGAGON PAUSE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Ukrainian explosives experts and police officers examine parts of a Shahed drone following an attack in Kharkiv on June 4, 2025. (Sergey Bobok\/AFP via \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n Hoffmann says Ukraine could adopt a strategy of hitting drone launch sites, and target Russia\u2019s defense industries, including factories that produce component parts for the drones like explosives, computer chips and other advanced electronics.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Trying to deal with the drone attacks just using missile defenses is a losing game. Europeans are heavily bolstering air missile defense capabilities, but it is not enough. Russia is expanding its offensive capabilities faster, and offensive weapons are cheaper to produce than defensive,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Shahed](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/shahed-drone-ukraine.jpg\")
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