Ukraine readies air defenses for potential Russian attacks on power system

Last winter, when Moscow bombarded power plants and transformers with cruise missiles and drones built in Iran, it nearly destroyed half of Ukraine's energy infrastructure, Reuters reports. Millions of people occasionally were without electricity.

Amid reports that Moscow has established its own facilities to produce assault drones based on the Shahed-136, the possibility of assaults on the electrical system is still quite real.

Vadym Skybytskyi, a Ukrainian intelligence official, indicated last week that Moscow could start using more Shaheds in addition to missiles – in order to mislead Ukraine's air defenses by sending a variety of targets.

According to him, Russian strikes on the energy sector's infrastructure could start in late September or early October.

However, the majority of the damage from the previous winter has been repaired, and Kyiv has strengthened its air defenses, particularly with recently given German-made Gepard systems, which feature sleek green turrets mounted on battle tank chassis.

Since it was initially used a month ago, the military claims one such system has successfully shot down five Shaheds with a success rate of 100%.

General Serhiy Nayev, head of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces, told Reuters: "We understand that the enemy has not ceased his criminal intentions to hit critical infrastructure facilities and cause damage to Ukraine and its economy."

"We had fewer (systems) last winter. Now we have been given more, and the effectiveness will be better," he said while visiting the region to hand out medals.

Cost-effective air defense

Although Ukraine seems to have made enough preparations for additional drone or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks, Samuel Bendett, Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Centre for a New American Security, warned that the steadily growing number of UAVs could become problematic.

In the following months, Bendett predicted that "there will be more of these UAVs in the air, but probably not by much more than flying now, since Russia is still far from its intended goal of producing thousands of these drones."

The president of Ukraine stated last month that throughout the conflict, Russia had launched roughly 2,000 Shaheds.

Military analysts put the cost of the Shaheds at around $20,000 each, although the air defense missiles supplied by the West that Kyiv employed last winter were much more expensive.

According to Nayev, Gepard flak guns are more cost-effective because each round they shoot costs less than $1,000.

Radar on each Gepard has an effective range of 12 km (7.5 miles). Ukraine doesn't have enough to cover its entire region, but Nayev claimed that heavy machine guns like the M2 Browning built in the United States filled in the gaps.

The excitement when the crew fired down drones during two night attacks in August was described by Anton, a crew member on the Gepard that struck five Shaheds last month.

"Adrenaline, emotional overload... you can't convey it with words," he stated. "We are not frightened. It drives us on to work (hard) and destroy targets in the Ukrainian sky."