Over the past week, Russia has deployed Shahed and Mohajer combat drones imported from Iran in greater numbers across Ukraine, with devastating results. Some hit combat positions, smashing tanks and armored vehicles, while others struck civilian infrastructure, including in the port city of Odesa.
The drones evaded the soldiers’ defenses and dropped bombs on their position, destroying two tanks with their crews inside.
“It’s very difficult to see these drones on radars,” said Andriana Arekhta, a junior sergeant with the Ukrainian Armed Forces, who traveled to Washington, D.C., last week as part of a delegation of female Ukrainian soldiers. “It’s a huge problem.”
The Iranian drones appear to be a potential game-changer for the Russians. They are relatively small and fly at low altitude, evading Ukrainian radars. Arekhta said she could shoot them down with Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, but only during the day because the U.S.-provided weapons do not come with a night-vision system.
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Ukraine needs modern air defenses, such as the Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Mortar systems the U.S. used in Afghanistan, and 360-degree radar to counter the new threat, the visiting group said.
Arekhta uses the Switchblade 300 drones provided by Washington, but they are essentially commercial systems that are not powerful enough to work against armored vehicles and artillery, she said.
Ukraine needs the upgraded Switchblade 600 drones, a loitering munition she described as “a flying Javelin.”
Ukrainian forces are now fighting the Russians on two fronts: advancing east from the Oskil River into the contested Donbas region, and south from Kherson.
After an initial breakthrough at the beginning of the month during which Kyiv recaptured much of the Russian-occupied Kharkiv region, gains have slowed significantly. Ukrainian soldiers are now pushing into the entrenched Donbas, where the two sides have been essentially deadlocked since 2014.
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In the Donetsk oblast, the battle is now more difficult because Russian forces are fighting from trenches and shelters built years ago, said Ivanna Chobaniuk, a medic who was serving near Kharkiv before she traveled to D.C. last week.
In the northeast, Ukrainian soldiers are trying to retake ground using Toyotas and other civilian cars — which are particularly vulnerable to drone attack — because their old armored vehicles were destroyed, Chobaniuk said.
Kyiv is trying to recapture as much ground as possible before winter sets in, the soldiers said. But now they have a new problem: in response to their counteroffensive, Vladimir Putin has mobilized 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine.