Kyiv has downed three Russian kamikaze Shahed drones, according to footage released by Ukrainian military officials.
The video, posted Friday to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine’s official X (formerly Twitter) page appears to show several unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) crash to the ground after being targeted by what the ministry said was a FIM-92 Stinger MANPADS – an American man-portable air-defense system that operates as an infrared homing surface-to-air missile.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries for comment via email.
Shahed drones – developed by Iran – are relatively low-cost UAVs designed to crash into targets with an explosive payload and are often used by Russia to attack Ukrainian targets.
A still from the footage appears to show the drown tumbling towards the ground. Iranian Shahed drones are often used by Russia to strike Ukrainian targets.
Ministry of Defense of Ukraine
“The primary roles of the [Shahed drones] in Russia’s strike campaign have been exhausting stockpiles of Ukrainian air defense interceptors and pathfinding, which is to say they have been used ahead of cruise missile strikes to unmask Ukrainian air defense radars which are turned on to engage them,” Sidharth Kaushal, research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in the U.K. told Newsweek.
“The most important thing about the recent loss rates is not that they are intercepted at high rates – the Russians expect that – but rather that they are being hit with systems such as man portable air defenses and anti-aircraft guns, which means that the Ukrainians are getting better at shooting them down with low cost tools to conserve their more expensive SAM systems for targets like cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.”
Ukraine claimed on Friday to have destroyed 70 Russian UAVs in the space of 24 hours.
The report, also posted to the ministry’s page, said an additional 1,140 troops, 59 artillery systems, and 119 vehicles were lost by the Russian military over the same period.
Kyiv’s report comes after Ukraine’s General Staff said it successfully targeted a Russian base containing drones used in its full-scale invasion, causing multiple detonations.
The Ukrainian military said in a telegram statement the attack hit the base in Yeysk, in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, where 400 Iranian Shahed drones were stored.
In September, Newsweek reported that a Russian colonel allegedly involved in the training of Russian specialists in the use of UAVs, including operators and support staff for Shahed drones was eliminated by Ukraine.
Alexey Kolomeytsev, head of the 924th state center for unmanned aviation of the Russian Defense Ministry, was eliminated following a special operation by a local resistance movement in coordination with the Main Intelligence Agency of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, according to Interfax-Ukraine, citing an unnamed intelligence source.
Newsweek previously examined Russian troop, tank and artillery losses in 2024, as of September 18.
Russian losses of artillery systems hit record highs in July and August, according to Ukrainian figures. In July, Russia lost 1,520 artillery systems, followed by 1,517 in August. Last month, 1,219 were reportedly destroyed.
This period also saw some of the highest losses of Russian military personnel so far, with 35,680 in July, 36,810 in August and 38,130 in September.
May was Russia’s worst month for tank losses this year, with 428 destroyed. It was the second deadliest month in the war for Russian tank crews, following October 2023, with 521.
Subsequent months saw 359 losses in June, 300 in July, 193 in August and 291 in September.
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