By Rostyslav Averchuk
Lviv, Ukraine, Apr 4 (EFE).- “Russian roulette” is how 24-year-old painter Daria Bakun describes Russia’s drone attacks against Dnipro and other cities, which have intensified despite ceasefire talks and have become more destructive due to a new tactic.
“You never know what happens next when you hear some 10-20 drones fly, one by one, over your home”, she tells EFE from her city in south-eastern Ukraine that has been attacked thrice in the last eight days.
Though Dnipro’s residents are accustomed to frequent air alarms, Russia’s drone waves keep Bakun in a state of constant tension, worsened by the strain of having to get her gravely ill father to safety during the attacks.
She shares, “As we hide in the building’s hall, away from the windows, we hear how their pitch changes as the drones speed up before detonating so close to us. This is so exhausting.”
“I thought we were safe because there is nothing nearby that would be of interest for the Russians”, 33-year-old copywriter Ludmyla Pryimenko also shares.
That illusion shattered last week when two drones crashed near her 12-story apartment block, the explosive wave blowing out her large windows and little bomblets peppering the walls and killing two people who were walking a dog nearby.
Pryimenko, in her eighth month of pregnancy, still sounds upbeat and happy that her 7-year-old and 4-year-old children remained unharmed. However, she recognizes that the complete shock may hit her later.
A growing danger
For Pryimenko and millions of other Ukrainians, the threat is growing as Russia refines its tactics.
Military observers say the drones – mostly Iran-designed Shaheds – now strike cities like Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Odesa in groups of 20 or 30 drones almost nightly, exploiting a method that makes them harder to stop.
Drones approach a city at an altitude of several kilometers, after which they sharply descend and begin circling next to the roofs of the houses.
This makes them “almost invulnerable” to air defenses because any attempt to shoot them down carries a huge risk for the residents in their homes, a military blogger, “DroneBomber,” writes.
Once all the drones, which follow elaborate routes from their launch sites in Russia and Crimea, arrive, they rise once again, fly to their target, and fall vertically at a great speed, giving the air defenses, most of which have a very limited range, mere seconds to react.
In search of solutions
Military observer Oleksandr Kovalenko compares such attacks with “carpet bombing” due to their indiscriminate impact. Writing for the Information Resistance Group, he warns that Russia will increase its terror of Ukrainian civilians in an attempt to sow panic, while unable to break through the defense on the frontline.
Last month, Russia launched a record 4196 drones, including 1344 in the final week alone, according to Ukraine’s Air Force.
To counteract the threat, Ukraine needs more of small- and medium-range air defense systems such as Gepard () and Crotale () or modernized Soviet-era “Strela” and “OSA”, the expert argues.
However, their stock is depleting and the production of new systems is slower and costlier than that of the Russian drones, which means that Ukraine has to find its solutions too and do so quickly.
Ukraine is looking into using drones to intercept Shaheds and producing its air-defense systems, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said last week.
Acting fast is important, according to Kovalenko, since Russia may soon double the number of drones it launches every night.
No peace in sight
Such attacks signal Russia has no plans to stop, locals believe.
“It’s blackmail. They terrorize civilians and try to intimidate and demoralize us to destabilize the country,” Daria Bakun from Dnipro is certain.
She doubts it will work, however.
“Such nights of terror only imbue most in Dnipro with even more hatred and distrust towards Russia rather than make them inclined to accept its ultimatums”, Bakun underlines. EFE
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