Russia launched more than 2,000 strike drones against Ukraine during October, the General Staff reported on Nov. 1, breaking the previous record set in September by nearly 700.
A total of 2,023 were recorded, according to the report. Of these, 1,185 were downed, 738 were "lost," and 29 flew back out of Ukraine's airspace.
No information was given about the remaining 71, but numerous strikes by Russian drones were reported during October, such as attacks that killed two people including a 15-year-old girl in Kyiv in recent days.
According to the General Staff, Russia has launched a total of 6,987 strike drones since the start of the year, meaning 29% of them were launched during last month.
The total number is significantly higher than September's previous record tally.
According to Ukraine's Air Force, 1,339 Shahed-type kamikaze drones targeted the country in September, 1,107 of which were shot down, with some others being jammed by electronic warfare and flying into Russian or Belarusian airspace. Around 45 were unaccounted for with no further details given.
Moscow has ramped up drone strikes, while dialing down the use of more powerful and harder-to-intercept cruise and ballistic missiles.
Experts who spoke to the Kyiv Independent said this may well be in preparation for an unprecedented mass attack rather than any sort of restraint from the Kremlin.
"UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles/drones) can be used as pathfinders,” Sidharth Kaushal, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Service Institute (RUSI), told the Kyiv Independent.
"A tool to force (an air defense) radar to light up, allowing the Russians to map the layout of defenses around Kyiv and other fairly well-defended cities."
Kaushal and other experts warn that Moscow's reliance on drones over missiles is likely a sign of a particularly large aerial attack in the near future.
"It's been quite a while since we saw a large-scale missile strike, which worries me," Fabian Hoffmann, a defense expert and doctoral research fellow at the University of Oslo, told the Kyiv Independent.
"Part of this could relate to the fact they are ramping up not just for one or two mass strikes, but perhaps several more with the objective of fully disintegrating Ukraine's electrical grid within a short period of time," he said.
"It could also be to allow for comprehensive follow-on attacks after initial blows have been dealt to make sure it cannot be effectively repaired."
Chris York
