Russia's Military Suffers Blow As Ukraine Deploys New Weapons

A Ukrainian defense industry manufacturer announced Monday that domestically produced kamikaze drones were ready to be deployed in Kyiv's fight against Russia.

According to an interview published by Economic Truth with Herman Smetanin, general director of the state-owned weapons producer Ukroboronprom, the drones, which have a maximum range of 1,000 kilometers (roughly 621 miles), were produced with the help of foreign suppliers.

Ukroboronprom spokeswoman Nataliya Sad announced in a Facebook post in June that a successful test had been conducted using a drone with the capability of reaching 1,000 kilometers.

"It is produced," Smetanin told Economic Truth when asked for updates on the weapons. "In particular, in cooperation with foreign partners. Where exactly, I will not tell you for security reasons. The main thing is that they fly and explode, and the defense forces order them. That's great."

Smetanin did not provide additional details about the new weapons and Newsweek reached out to Ukraine's Defense Ministry via email for additional information.

The newly produced drones appear to be the longest-ranged unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at Ukraine's disposal. In August, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that his country had developed a weapon that could hit targets up to 700 kilometers (400 miles) away, according to a report by The Associated Press.

Ukraine's military has relied heavily on its so-called "army of drones" in its 20-month-long war against Russia. According to British think tank the Royal United Services Institute, Kyiv uses approximately 10,000 UAVs each month, including kamikaze drones, loitering munitions and reconnaissance drones.

During his interview with Economic Truth, Smetanin said that the long-range drones being produced by Ukroboronprom are not similar to the Iranian Shaheeds drones that Moscow often deploys. However, other manufacturers are working on building such weapons.

"There are many state and private manufacturers in Ukraine," Smetanin said. "We have an analog of Shaheeds, and there are also more powerful models, because Shaheeds do not fly that far. We focused on the production of more complex and expensive projects with high performance."

Meanwhile, Russia has struggled to keep up with its own demand for weapon supplies and has long relied on Iranian-made weapons to replenish its own stockpile. Moscow has also reportedly begun production on a new naval training vessel designed to teach pilots to intercept Ukrainian drones.

Russia has begun "slowly catching up" to Ukraine's stockpile of UAVs, according to Marina Miron, a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of War Studies at King's College London who previously spoke with Newsweek.

The U.K. Defense Ministry noted last week that Russia's recently-debuted Lancet uncrewed UAVs have "highly likely been one of the most effective new capabilities that Russia has fielded in Ukraine over the last 12 months."