A new variable has emerged in the war in Ukraine, which is rapidly turning into a full-scale drone war.

As Ukraine used drones to strike deep into Russia's rear, Russia announced that it would deploy high-speed jet-propelled drones to attack Ukraine 24 hours a day. The tide of the war has become even more likely to tilt toward Russia.

Surpassing previous models in speed and shaking up air defense networks, Russian drones are once again consuming the daily lives of Ukrainians much like they did in the early days of the war.

The U.S. daily The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 31st (local time) that Russia is stepping up the intensity of its attacks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, by combining jet-propelled drones with new tactics.

The mainstay recently being used by Russia is the "Geran," a jet-propelled drone modified from Iran's Shahed model.

Equipped with a jet engine instead of traditional propellers, the new model reaches speeds of up to 300 mph (approx. 482 km/h). Being about three times faster than older models, its target accuracy is also higher.

Russia introduced these new drones late last year and significantly expanded their deployment starting in July.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that out of the 1,500 long-range drones Russia launched toward Ukraine over the four days starting on the 27th, 800 were new models.

The WSJ pointed out that the appearance of the new drones is driving the war in Ukraine into a new phase. Until recently, Ukraine held the upper hand in drone warfare. However, as Russia mastered drone tactics and introduced new drones, the situation has shifted to where Russia is now dominating drone warfare as well.

While Ukraine thoroughly reaped the benefits of drones over a 4-year-and-half-long war, Russia's new drones are now eroding Ukraine's air defense networks.

Ukraine's interception rate for older propeller-driven drones is close to 90%, but its interception rate for the new drones falls short of that.

According to the British open-source organization Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), when Russia launched 101 new drones on the 6th, the Ukrainian Air Force's interception rate plummeted to 65%, the lowest level so far this year.

While Ukraine is throwing itself into developing upgraded drones to raise its interception rate back above 90%, Ukraine's daily life is being shattered once again by Russia's attacks, which combine the new drones with ballistic missiles and other weapons.

Russia has notably changed its attack pattern—which previously focused mainly on nighttime operations—to a method of launching scattered, continuous strikes 24 hours a day.

On the evening of the 28th, a warehouse facility on the outskirts of Kyiv was struck by a new drone, leaving 38 dead and dozens injured.

Amid all-day air raid sirens, drone noises, and explosions, daily life in Ukraine is paralyzed as shops shut down and public transportation fails to operate properly.

A resident living in Kyiv told the WSJ that due to the stress of air raids, the number of nights they are unable to sleep until 4 a.m. is increasing.

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