Russian forces are increasingly launching "unspecified" models of drones against Ukraine alongside those of the Shahed type, former Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said in a comment to Ukrainska Pravda on Oct. 5.
Russia has stepped up drone attacks in recent weeks — for the first time since the full-scale invasion, they targeted cities and towns across Ukraine on a daily basis for an entire month in September.
This daily trend has continued for the first days of October and commenting on the latest overnight attack, Ihnat said that 10 drones were likely of different, unspecified types and could only be properly identified after being examined on the ground.
Ihnat did not elaborate on what type of drones they could be.
Russia has launched thousands of cheap but effective Iranian-designed Shahed-type drones against Ukraine since the fall of 2022.
While initially sourcing them from Iran, in an August 2023 report, the U.K. Defense Ministry said Russia had begun domestic production.
In July, Russia began using a new type of cheaply-made drone to identify air defense systems and act as decoys, Andrii Cherniak, a spokesperson of Ukraine's military intelligence said.
Made of plywood and plastic foam, he said this type of drone was used to reveal the location of air defense systems and film damage, with one type able to carry a camera and Ukrainian sim card to send footage back to Russia.
"They identify where our mobile groups are positioned, where the machine guns are that can destroy them," Cherniak told Reuters.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, an adviser to the presidential office's head, also said that Russian troops used a new type of drone — Gerbera — in limited numbers in an attack in July.
Chris York
