Ukraine war briefing: New anti-drone weapon scores hit amid race against Shahed jets

“Today, there is good news about interceptors against jet-powered Shaheds,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his Tuesday evening address as he spoke about efforts to counter newer, faster Russian suicide drones. A new interceptor managed to shoot one down, Zelenskyy said, without giving further details. “It’s a Ukrainian development and it scored a hit, ⁠the Shahed was destroyed.” He added: “Some technical things ​still need to ‌be refined.” Ukraine’s military said its forces downed 187 airborne targets overnight into Tuesday – Zelenskyy said “of course more is needed”.

Ukraine has struggled to develop interceptors for the jet-engined Shahed drones that Russia has started using, which can go faster than 400km/h. Previously, Shaheds were all propeller-driven and half as fast. Reuters reports that tests of interceptors have been hampered by the high speeds involved. “With the jet drones, we completely screwed up the initiative again, that’s a fact … we don’t even know what to do about them,” Maksym Zhorin, deputy commander of the 3rd Army Corps, posted on Friday.

Zelenskyy has said more than 60 Ukrainian companies are working on interceptors for jet-powered drones but only a handful have demonstrated results. Yuriy Cherevashenko, a deputy commander of Ukraine’s air force, said one solution being tested was a new generation of cheap guided missiles – engineered to cost less than the drones they shoot down. “I’m confident that soon we could fully have a class of weapons that will be effective at countering jet-powered UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles],” Cherevashenko said.

A Ukrainian army unit has launched a counteroffensive against Russian forces near Lyman in Ukraine’s east, the unit’s commander said on Tuesday. Ukrainian units have cleared Russian infiltrators from an area of “about 75 square kilometres”, said Andriy Biletsky. “The 3rd Army Corps has launched an offensive operation called Vivaldi in this sector,” Biletsky said. The battlefield mappers DeepState showed Ukrainian troops had made a small pocket of gains north of Lyman.

The reported ​gains in the Donetsk region would add to Ukraine’s push earlier this year in the south-east, where Kyiv said it clawed back more than 700 sq km of territory during a months-long counterattack. A week ago, war analysts said the same corps had recaptured a “salient” – a protrusion of Russian-occupied land hemmed by Ukrainian-held territory – of more than 200 square kilometres near Lyman.

Russia attacked port ⁠infrastructure in ⁠Ukraine’s ​southern Black ⁠Sea region ⁠of ​Odesa ‌overnight, ‌the regional governor ‌said on Tuesday. Residential buildings, ‌logistics facilities and ​transport infrastructure came ⁠under attack, ​said Oleh ​Kiper. A ⁠Russian drone attack ⁠killed ⁠one person and ​knocked out ⁠power in parts ⁠of ​the ‌city of Zaporizhzhia ‌in south-east ‌Ukraine, said the acting regional governor, Mykhailo Semikin, ​said.

Russian strikes on Kyiv killed one person and wounded seven other people on Tuesday, with attacks carried out on the capital’s petrol stations, Ukraine’s state emergency service said. Two more people were killed in separate Russian strikes in the Ukrainian cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

Ukraine struck ⁠an oil refinery ⁠in the ⁠Russian city ​of Syzran, ⁠Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday. He also reported ​a ‌strike ‌on a drone ‌production facility in the Russian city of Taganrog, and ‌on a drone preparation and ​launch site in the Oryol ⁠region. Unnamed targets were ​hit ​in ​the Black ​Sea, ‌he ​said.

Zelenskyy said ⁠Russian drones attacked Moldovan airspace twice while he was in the country on board his aircraft at Chisinau airport headed to and from a trip abroad. “In Moldova, my presidential jet was there ⁠and that’s why they attacked Moldova, the airspace of Moldova. Maybe ​they didn’t want to attack ‌me personally,” Zelenskyy told CBS. “When ‌we came back home, again through Chisinau, again they did the ‌same.” Moldovan authorities said two drones entered ⁠the country’s airspace on Monday 14 September. One came down in a field and the other flew off into Romania. Initially reports that Zelenskyy’s plane was almost hit were later played down.

Russia will not stop fighting ⁠in ⁠Ukraine ​while any potential ⁠talks take place, its foreign minister, ⁠Sergei Lavrov, ​said ‌on ‌Tuesday. Ukraine ​has repeatedly said that ⁠a ceasefire should ​be the starting ​point ​for ​the ‌talks.

Ukrainian lawmakers approved ⁠Zelenskyy’s sacking of ⁠the prosecutor general, Ruslan ⁠Kravchenko, ​who resigned amid a corruption scandal in his agency but then appeared to attempt a challenge against anti-corruption agencies. The ‌vote was supported ​by 317 ⁠lawmakers, with ​226 needed ​for a ​majority. None voted against.