Russia’s intensifying drone war is spreading fear and eroding Ukrainian morale

Everyone agrees: It is getting worse.

The people of Kyiv, like the citizens of other Ukrainian cities, have passed a lot.

After three and a half years of volatile wealth, it is very difficult and flexible.

But in recent months, they have been suffering from something new: vast waves and coordinated from the air attacks, which include hundreds of drones and missiles, which are often concentrated on one city.

Last night, Kyiv was. And the previous week also. Between them, Lutsk was in the far west.

Three years ago, Shahi drones from Iran were relative modernity. I remember I heard the first, as it tops a lazy bow across the night sky over the southern city of Zaburisvia in October 2022.

But now everyone is familiar with the sound, and its most frequent frightening: some dived channels in the Second World War War.

The sound of swarms has restored the drones to the crucifixion civilians to the shelters of bombs, metro and underground parking for the first time since the first days of the war.

Katia, a resident of Kiev, told me after a heavy shelling last night: “Show the house as it was made of paper.”

“We spent all night sitting in the bathroom.”

“I went to parking for the first time,” one of another resident, Svetlana.

“I shook the building and saw fires across the river.”

The attacks do not always claim life, but it spreads fear and erods the morale.

After an attack on a residential bloc in Kiev last week, Jeddah shocked me, Maria, that her 11 -year -old grandson had turned to her, in the shelter, and said he understood the meaning of death for the first time.

He has all the reasons to be afraid. The task of monitoring the United Nations human rights in Ukraine (HRMMU) says that June witnessed the highest monthly civilian victims in three years, killing 232 people and more than 1,300 people.

Many will be killed or wounded in societies near the front lines, but others were killed in cities far from fighting.

“The boom in long -range missiles and drones all over the country brought more death and destruction to civilians away from the front lines,” says Daniel Bell, President of HRMMU.

Amendments in A martyr design She allowed her to fly much higher than before and go down to her goal of a greater height.

Its group also increased to about 2,500 km, and is able to carry a deadliest load (altitude of about 50 kg of the explosive to 90 kg).

The maps produced by local experts follow vortex masses of drones, and sometimes they take circular roads throughout Ukraine before clarifying their goals.

Many – often reach half – are partners, designed to dispel and overcome air defenses in Ukraine.

Other straight lines show ballistic missile paths or marine flights: much lower than number, but weapons that Russia rely on doing the largest damage.

The analysis of the Institute residing in Washington to study the war shows an increase in drones and Russia in the following two months to include Donald Trump in January.

March saw a slight decrease, with cross mutations, until May, when the numbers increased dramatically.

New records are set regularly.

June witnessed the highest new monthly level of 5429 drones, July saw more than 2000 in the first nine days only.

As production increases in Russia, some reports indicate that Moscow may soon be able to launch more than 1,000 missiles and drones in one night.

Experts in Kyiv warn that the country is in danger of exhaustion.

“If Ukraine does not find a solution to how to deal with these drones, we will face major problems during the year 2025,” says former intelligence officer Ivan Stopak.

“Some of these drones are trying to reach military objects – we have to understand – but the rest, they destroy apartments, are in office buildings and cause many damages to citizens.”

Despite all its increasing ability, drones are not a particularly developed weapon. But they represent another example of the vast Gulf in resources between Russia and Ukraine.

It also shows the exact size, which is attributed to the leader of the World War II of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, that “the quantity has its own quality.”

“This is a resource war,” says Sirhi Kozan, of the Kiev -based Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center.

“When the production of certain missiles became very complicated – expensive, many components, many complex supply methods – focused on this specified type of drones and made different modifications and improvements.”

Cosan says, more than one drone in one attack, the greater the harder defense units in Ukraine, to bring them down. This forces Kyiv to back down from its valuable supplies of aircraft and air missiles to the air to shoot down.

“If the drones are a squadron, they destroy all air defense missiles,” he says.

Thus, President Zelinski Continuous calls To Ukraine’s allies to do more to protect its sky. Not only with Patriot missiles – vibrant to face the most dangerous Russian ballistic threats – but with a wide range of other systems as well.

On Thursday, the British government said it would sign a defense agreement with Ukraine to provide more than 5,000 air defense missiles.

KYIV will search for many of these deals in the coming months.