SBU records nearly 50,000 Shahed drone launches against Ukraine since 2022
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has documented almost 50,000 launches of Iranian-designed Shahed drones by Russia since the start of its full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to an investigation by Slidstvo.Info.
The Office of the Prosecutor General reported that the attacks have killed 253 civilians and injured another 1,524. Investigators have registered more than 1,600 criminal cases over strikes targeting civilian infrastructure.
On Sept. 30, a Russian drone attack on the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine killed 1 person and injured at least 28 people on Sept. 30, local authorities reported, adding that a 10-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl were among the wounded. At least 12 people were hospitalized.
Russia has used Shahed drones primarily against non-military targets, destroying or damaging residential buildings and other civilian facilities protected under international humanitarian law.
Officials noted that Russia’s military doctrine did not initially include drones of this type, leaving its armed forces without a clear structure for who commanded such operations.
"Gradually they are forming specific units, similar to our Defense Forces of Unmanned Systems. We are beginning to understand who makes the decisions to carry out these strikes," said Yuriy Bielousov, who headed the Department for Combating Crimes Committed in Armed Conflict at the Prosecutor General’s Office.
"We worked closely with our intelligence partners to collect this information piece by piece. Now we will start naming individuals and pursuing them under in absentia procedures, but I hope it’s only a matter of time before we achieve real accountability," Bielousov added.
Yuliia Taradiuk
