The desire of the Russian unmanned war spreads fear and blurring Ukrainian morality

Paul Adams

Diplomatic correspondent, kyiv

Watch: The most intense strikes on Kyiv since June

Everyone agrees: everything worsens.

The people of Kiev, like citizens of other Ukrainian cities, survived a lot.

After three and a half years of oscillation of fate, they are rigid and extremely elastic.

But in recent months, they have experienced something new: huge, coordinated waves of attacks from the air, which involved hundreds of drones and missiles that are often focused on the same city.

It was Kyiv last night. And a week earlier. Between them it was Lutsk in the Far West.

Three years ago, Iranian drones were a relative novelty. I remember heard my first, having a lazy arc across the night sky above the Southern city of Zaparichzh in October 2022.

But now everyone is familiar with the sound, and its most terrible recent iteration: the immersion that breaks, some of them compared to the German World War of the Stiuk aircraft.

The sound of the roots of the approaching drones sent hardened civilians to the shelter, subway and underground parking for the first time from the first days of the war.

“The house swayed the way it was made of paper,” Katya’s resident Katya told me after a strong bombing yesterday.

“We spent all night sitting in the bathroom.”

“I went to parking for the first time,” another resident of Svitlana told me.

“The building swayed and I saw fires across the river.”

The attacks do not always claim life, but they spread fear and destroy morality.

After the attack on the residential block in Kiev last week, the shocked grandmother, Maria, told me that her 11-year-old grandson turned to her asylum, and said that she understood the meaning of death for the first time.

He has every reason to be afraid. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) says that in June the highest monthly civilian victims were observed in June, and 232 people were killed and more than 1300 were injured.

Many of them will be killed or wounded in communities close to the front, but others were killed in cities far from fighting.

“The verdict in far missiles and drones across the country brought even more death and destruction of civilians far from the frontline,” says Daniel Bell, head of HRMMU.

Reuters Firefighters on Drone Strike scene in Kiev, July 10Reuters

Modifications in Shahed’s design He was allowed to fly much higher than before, and descended to his goal from greater height.

Its range also increased to 2500 km, and it is able to wear a more deadly load (approximately 50 kg of explosive to 90 kg).

Tracking cards manufactured by local experts show the spread masses of the drone, sometimes conducting the county routes across Ukraine before entering their goals.

Many are often half of the baits designed to confuse and overcome Ukraine’s air protection.

Other straight lines show the paths of ballistic or cruise missiles: much less in number, but the weapon on which Russia relies to cause the greatest harm.

Analysis at the Washington Institute for Studying War shows an increase in Russian drones and missile strikes two months after Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.

In March, there was a slight decrease, with periodic spikes, until May, when the numbers suddenly increased.

New records were installed with disturbing regularity.

Rub from EPA fills the burned apartment in Kyiv. The broken windows leave the room open for sunlight, and burned trees and garbage cover the floor.Epa

This apartment was demolished when the Russian drone got into a residential building in Kiev

In June, a new monthly maximum of 5429 drones took place, in July more than 2000 in the first nine days.

With production in Russia, some reports believe that Moscow may soon focus more than 1000 rockets and drones in one night.

Experts in Kiev warn that the country is threatened with overloaded.

“If Ukraine does not find the decision on how to deal with these drones, we will face big problems during 2025,” says former intelligence officer Ivan Stupak.

“Some of these drones are trying to achieve military facilities – we must understand it – but the rest they destroy the apartments by getting into office buildings and causing great harm to citizens.”

With all their increase in the ability of drones are not particularly complex weapons. But they are another example of a huge bay in resources between Russia and Ukraine.

It also neatly illustrates the maximum attributed to the World War II leader Joseph Stalin that “quantity has its own quality”.

“This is a war of resources,” says Serhi Cusan from the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center based in Kiev.

“If the production of specific rockets is too complicated – too expensive, too many components, too many complex food routes – they focus on this particular type of drone and developed various modifications and improvements.”

The more drones in the same attack, the body says, the more violent the Ukraine’s push -ups opposed to knock them down. This makes Kiev return to valuable reserves of planes and air-air missiles to knock them down.

“So, when the drones go like a swarm, they destroy all air defense missiles,” he says.

Hence the President Zelensky Permanent appeals For the allies of Ukraine, do more to protect your sky. Not only with Patriot missiles – vital for combating the most dangerous Russian ballistic threat – but also with a wide range of other systems.

On Thursday, the British government said it would sign the defense agreement with Ukraine to provide more than 5,000 air defense missiles.

Kyiv will look for many more such transactions in the coming months.

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