New statistics from Kiev show that Russia was able to bomb Ukraine this summer with thousands of jet attack drones – a rare weapon just a year and a half ago.
The Kremlin has so far launched 7,700 turbojet drones into Ukraine, Colonel Yuri Ignat, the main spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, told state broadcaster TSN on Wednesday.
Most of those came in the summer, he said, jumping from 350 jet drones in June to 1,500 in July and then to 2,850 in August.
So far this month, Russia has launched 1,900 faster, more advanced drones.
This means that at least half of all Russian long-range drone attacks consist of jet-powered systems, including the Kremlin’s version of the Iranian-designed Shaheed drone.
“This shows that the enemy is not stopping and they are looking for opportunities to buy these jet engines and other components and assemble them on Russian soil,” Ignat said.
Jet drones pose a particularly serious problem for Ukraine’s air defenses, and the country is still struggling to find cheap, mass-produced countermeasures.
The drones were a novelty early in the war but attracted wider attention in early 2025, when Ukrainian war observers began reporting increasing sightings of Shahed drones equipped with jet engines.
The surge in production this year shows that Russia has significantly expanded its access to vital parts that Ukrainian intelligence services have repeatedly said Moscow can only procure on global markets.
Ukraine says the jet engines, in particular, come from China. Kiev said it had also found key electronic components in the drones, such as digital signal processors, clock generators and transceivers, from U.S. or European companies.
This is a particular sore point for Ukraine, which has long warned that Russia’s military production base has been able to evade international sanctions and its scale allows it to mass-produce weapons using foreign parts.
The Kremlin hopes to expand production further.
Politico last week reported on its plans to acquire the Russian state-owned company, which outlines the production of enough airframe material for an additional 28,000 unidirectional attack drones per year, on top of its annual production of 36,000 drones.
Satellite images analyzed by Business Insider’s Jake Epstein also show that Russia built a new facility this year specifically for jet drone launches, complete with a 280-foot orbit.
Once a rare sight, now a prime threat
The jet-powered drones began to emerge as Ukraine prepared to counter Russia’s most common attack drone at the time, the Geran-2. These propeller-driven drones, modeled after the Shahed-136, fly at about 115 mph and the Kremlin launches hundreds of powerful waves into Ukrainian cities at night.
The massive attacks meant Ukraine had to find a cheap way to counter drones, and it did this by intercepting drones, small quadcopters flying at higher speeds.
Then the newer turbojet Geran-3 arrived. It is believed to be a cousin of the Russian Shahed-238, an Iranian drone that can reach a top speed of 373 mph and even reach 500 mph in a dive – too fast for typical interceptor drones.
The Geran-4 is a more advanced generation of this delta-wing drone, using an airframe better suited to extreme speeds.
Russia has also unveiled a new jet drone that is very similar to the Iranian Karar drone, which is a copy of the American MQM-107 Streaker.
Russia’s Kara missile, known to Ukrainians as the Geran-5, is very similar to what one would expect from a cruise missile. Shaped like a winged bullet, it can fly at about 370 mph, has a range of nearly 600 miles, and has a payload of 198 pounds.
GUR released an image of what appears to be debris collected from a downed Geran-5 aircraft. Defense Intelligence Service of Ukraine (GUR)
Since then, Ukraine has begun developing more advanced jet interceptor drones as a response. However, their production is still in the early stages, with the Ukrainian company announcing only a small number of demolitions this summer.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that Ukraine has tested four types of jet interceptor drones in combat.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian cities have been feeling the deadly pressure of Russian attacks. Its data shows it intercepts only about 60% of Russian drones, down from 90% when the Kremlin mainly launches propeller-driven Shahid drones.