Lhe drone war is raging in the skies of Ukraine. kyiv has long been able to count on the undeniable superiority conferred on it in this respect by the Bayraktar drones, of Turkish manufacture, with the eventual possibility of local production. These drones contributed to the halt inflicted on the Russian offensive of February 24, to the point of being celebrated with a song exalting the Ukrainian resistance. President Zelensky also warmly welcomed, on September 9, Selçuk Bayraktar, the Turkish industrialist who gave his name to such drones and who happens to be the son-in-law of the Turkish head of state: “ Everyone in Ukraine knows what Bayraktar is and knows your company. Thank you and President Erdogan, thank you for your support and that of Turkish citizens in this war against Russian aggression. Moscow is trying to compensate for such a weakness by acquiring since this summer Iranian drones of the Shahed (martyr in Persian) type, massively used during the bombardments of October 10 and 11 on civilian targets in Ukraine.
Kamikaze drones
Unlike Turkish Bayraktar, Shahed drones are relatively unsophisticated. But they have a range of 2,500 kilometers and can fly at more than 185 kilometers per hour for the Shahed-136 model, hundreds of which have already been delivered to the Russian army. They are produced by Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries, a company known by its Persian acronym of HESA and placed on Western sanctions lists because of its collaboration in the nuclear program. This type of drone has already carried out spectacular attacks, in September 2019 against oil installations in Saudi Arabia, then last January against the territory of the United Arab Emirates, attacks claimed by the pro-Iranian rebels of Yemen, but largely attributed to the Iran itself. These drones are said “suicide bombers” because of their « sacrifice » during the raid. The Islamic Republic has chosen to call them « martyr »a term so loaded that Russia has renamed them… “Geranium”. This is how Shahed-136s become Geran-2s in Russian!
As of September 13, the Ukrainian army claims to have shot down a Shahed-136 not far from Koupiansk, a strategic locality in the north of Donbass, reconquered a few days later. On September 25, it was against an administrative building in Odessa that these drones were used, before, a good week later, a strike sounded in the kyiv oblast. It is now clear that the Shahed-136s are dedicated to deep strikes, while Ukrainian leaders denounce Russia’s transfer of Shahed-136s to Belarusian territory, in order to better target kyiv and the north-east of the country. Iranian drones, launched from Belarus or Crimea, are at the heart of the terror campaign waged on October 10 and 11 by Russia against civilian targets throughout Ukraine. kyiv claims to have shot down 13 of the 24 drones launched on October 10, as well as the 13 launched the next day, a claim at this stage unverifiable. However, it reflects the determination of the Ukrainian government to face this threat from Iran.
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