New jet-powered Russian drones increase pressure on Ukraine air defenses

Russia is pummeling Ukraine with a new generation of jet-propelled drones, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday. The new models are variants of Iranian Shahed drones but can travel almost twice as far and fly at much greater speeds than the original piston-powered models. Russia launches dozens at a time from different positions around Ukraine in an effort to overwhelm the nation’s air defenses. “Jet-propelled drones now account for more than half of the unmanned aerial vehicles Russia is launching to ‘wear down’ Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. The development demonstrates that even after 4½ years of full-scale war, Russia has not exhausted its ability to adapt and escalate.