How Russia’s new jet drones are changing the threat to Kyiv
In this report, the Kyiv Independent’s Asami Terajima and Nick Allard join a Ukrainian volunteer air defense team defending Kyiv as Russia intensifies its drone attacks on the capital.
Team
Asami Terajima
ReporterAsami Terajima is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent covering Ukrainian military affairs and front-line developments. She is the co-author of the weekly War Notes newsletter. She previously worked as a business reporter for the Kyiv Post, focusing on international trade, infrastructure, investment, and energy. Originally from Japan, Terajima moved to Ukraine during childhood and completed her bachelor's degree in Business Administration in the U.S. She is the winner of the Thomson Reuters Foundation's Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism 2023 (Local Reporter category) and the George Weidenfeld Prize, awarded as part of Germany's Axel Springer Prize 2023. She was also featured on the Media Development Foundation's 2023 "25 under 25: Young and Bold" list of emerging media makers in Ukraine. She is among the finalists for the U.K.'s One World Media Award 2026 in the Print category and the French Bayeux Calvados-Normandy award 2025 for war correspondents in the Young Reporter category.
Articles
Belgium to transfer 3 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine by end of 2026, Zelensky says
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine has already received urgent ammunition shipments for F-16s from Belgium and other Western allies, including Spain.
Tu-95 aircraft crashed in Russia's Amur Oblast during training, killing 6 crew members, Moscow says
The preliminary cause of the nighttime crash is believed to be a fuel explosion on board, according to the Telegram channel Baza, which has ties to the Russian security services.
Russian troops using civilians as 'human shields' to flee via Kupiansk pipeline, Khartiia Corps claims
Children, elderly people, and a person on crutches walked alongside draft-age men who were likely Russian soldiers wearing civilian clothes, according to Khartiia Corps' drone footage.
Russian attacks kill 1, injure 56 across Ukraine over past day, as yet another overnight attack pounds Kyiv
The Air Force said that Russia attacked Ukraine overnight with an Onyx and Zircon anti-ship missile, two Iskander-M/S-400 ballistic missiles, and 152 attack drones, 82 of which were jet-powered.
Under FPVs and glide bombs, life clings on in Zaporizhzhia
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Zaporizhzhia Oblast — In Kosmichnyi, the most heavily bombarded district of Zaporizhzhia, children play at a park. Some run around in camouflage clothing, while others laugh as they go up and down a slide.
Suddenly, the buzzing sound of a drone fills the air, replacing the sounds of joy on the playground.
"It's a Shahed!" one of the children yells. They run to hide under the nearby trees, looking up at what appears to be a Ukrainian interceptor drone.
Among them is six-year-old
Up to 12 UK companies to gain access to Ukraine's battlefield data for AI drone swarms
British companies are now invited to turn in proposals on how they envision using the "goldmine of battlefield data," the U.K. Defense Ministry said, adding that the selection would be made "in just a matter of weeks."
Russian attacks kill at least 6, wound 38 across Ukraine, as overnight strike hit shopping mall in Zaporizhzhia
The Air Force said Russian forces launched attacks against Ukraine overnight with 172 drones, of which 148 were intercepted.
No tanks, lone soldiers — Ukraine details new Russian assault tactics
The prevalence of drones from both sides has significantly changed assault tactics, making heavy equipment such as tanks a rare sight on the battlefield.
Russian attacks kill at least 8, wound 30 across Ukraine, as a child injured in Sept. 19 strike dies in hospital
The Air Force reported that Russian troops launched 138 attack drones against Ukraine, of which 101 were intercepted.
Why drones can't replace Ukraine's reconnaissance soldiers
The Kyiv Independent's Nick Allard and Asami Terajima travel to Kharkiv Oblast to meet reconnaissance soldiers from Ukraine's 60th Mechanized Brigade, part of the 3rd Army Corps, and witness the training required to perform one of the army's most dangerous roles.
Over 500 locomotives destroyed or damaged by Russian attacks, Ukraine says
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stressed that the country urgently needs replacements and called on Western allies to help find and finance the procurement of locomotives compatible with the 1520 mm gauge.
As Russia closes in on Sloviansk, this taxi driver keeps working
SLOVIANSK, Donetsk Oblast — From a brick-walled garage that barely fits the blue car parked inside, Oleksandr Richak carefully backs his taxi cab out onto the narrow street.
The 42-year-old usually starts work around 8 a.m., once the early-morning rush hour of deadly Russian drone activity in the eastern front-line city subsides.
As he briefly parks the car outside a damaged one-story house, his wife, Nataliia, walks over and hands him a bottle of lemon-flavored water. Her worried eyes follow
We asked Ukrainian soldiers about Russian losses passing 1.5 million
Russia's total military losses in Ukraine have reached 1,500,870, Ukraine's General Staff said on Sept. 9, marking another grim milestone in the war for the Kremlin.
It took roughly two years and three months for the Russian Armed Forces to incur their first 500,000 casualties. Moscow has now suffered roughly the same number in just the past 15 months, as technology increasingly shapes the battlefield and drones expand the kill zone almost daily.
The Kremlin's total personnel losses in Ukraine
Ukraine claims strikes on railway bridge and Russian aircraft in Russian-occupied Crimea
Ukraine struck several targets across occupied Crimea overnight, targeting logistics and a Russian aircraft
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