Ukraine has four potential interceptor systems that could shoot down Russia’s increasingly common jet-powered Geran attack drones, Ukrainian Defense Minister Yevhen Khmara said on 30 August, according to Suspilne.

Russia has sharply increased its use of the faster drones against Ukrainian cities, causing major damage to civilian infrastructure and many civilian casualties. The attacks are putting near-unprecedented strain on Ukraine’s air defenses.

All four interceptor systems have undergone field testing, Khmara said. Ukraine now aims to bring them to the required level as quickly as possible and scale production to thousands of units.

“The search for countermeasures against jet-powered drones continues,” Khmara told journalists, according to Suspilne. “There are already four potential interceptors that can shoot down jet-powered ‘Shaheds.’ Field tests have already been conducted on them.”

Russia is rapidly expanding Geran attacks

Russia's Gerans are jet-powered adaptations of the Iranian-designed Shahed attack drones that Russia has produced domestically throughout the full-scale war. The faster Geran variants give Ukrainian air defenses less time to detect and engage them.

Ukrainian defense technology adviser Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov said Russia used more than 2,500 jet-powered Gerans against Ukraine in August, up from about 1,500 in July.

He also said the drones are being launched against Ukraine almost directly from Russian factories, highlighting the rapid expansion of their production and use.

Zelenskyy calls for faster production

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made countering the Gerans a priority as Russia sustains repeated attacks on Ukrainian cities.

At a 28 August meeting of Ukraine’s military leadership, Zelenskyy said the country needed to maximize domestic weapons production, with the immediate focus on defending against jet-powered Gerans and increasing Ukraine’s own long-range strikes against Russia.

“[The] main thing is our defense against jet-powered ‘Shaheds,’” Zelenskyy said in his evening address.

He said Russia had adopted a tactic of keeping Kyiv and other cities under repeated air raid alerts, with Gerans reaching the capital as well as cities including Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia.

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Four days of Russian attacks keep Kyiv under near-constant fire. Ukraine is struggling to defend its skies

“All our means of countering [them] are already being used,” Zelenskyy said, adding that Ukraine needs a significant acceleration in production of interceptors specifically designed for the jet-powered drones.

Khmara said the four potential interceptors are now at the field-testing stage, with the next step being to bring them into production at a scale of thousands of units.

For Ukraine, that scale is critical. The country must defend a large territory against increasingly large Russian drone barrages while also preserving limited air-defense resources for ballistic and other missiles that require more advanced interceptors.

Ukraine's Air Force says its air defenses have destroyed more than 445,000 Russian aerial targets since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, according to figures released on 2 August.

The numbers come as Russia is reshaping much of its aerial campaign around ballistic missiles, exposing one of the few remaining vulnerabilities in Ukraine's air defense network despite its continued success against drones and cruise missiles.

The statistics were published in a statement marking more than four and a half years of resistance since Russia launched its all-out invasion on 24 February 2022. The Air Force said its personnel preserved Ukraine's air defense network under sustained missile and air attacks from the opening hours of the war, preventing Russia from achieving its initial objective of subjugating the country.

The statement paid tribute to fighter pilots, air defense missile units, radar troops, drone operators, communications specialists, and support personnel involved in defending Ukraine's airspace.

More than 65,000 Shaheds intercepted

According to the Air Force, Ukraine's air defenses have destroyed more than 445,000 aerial targets since February 2022, including:

• 91 Kh-47M2 Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles
• 794 Kalibr cruise missiles
• 2,809 Kh-101/Kh-555/Kh-55 cruise missiles
• 13 Kh-22/32 cruise missiles
• 12 Oniks anti-ship missiles
• 294 Iskander-K cruise missiles
• 346 Iskander-M and North Korean KN-23 ballistic missiles
• 12 Zircon anti-ship missiles
• 622 guided air-launched missiles
• More than 70 missiles of other types
• 65,618 Shahed attack drones
• 20,286 reconnaissance drones
• 10,604 Lancet loitering munitions
• 342,585 drones of other types

Air Force reports more than 38,000 combat sorties

The Air Force said Ukrainian military aviation carried out 38,367 sorties between 2022 and 2026, including 12,280 strike and close air support missions and 21,524 fighter cover missions.

It added that aircraft from Ukraine's Defense Forces have destroyed more than 12,000 aerial targets during the full-scale war while striking Russian command posts, logistics facilities, and concentrations of troops and military equipment.

The statement also honored fallen service members and thanked those who continue defending Ukraine's skies.

Russia's ballistic missile attacks rise, breaking through Ukraine’s proven air defenses

The figures come as Russia increasingly turns to using ballistic missiles against Ukrainian cities, which are among the most difficult threats for Ukraine's air defenses to intercept.

Russia launched 126 ballistic missiles against Ukraine in July, the highest monthly total recorded this year. The attacks included Iskander-M missiles, North Korean KN-23 ballistic missiles, and S-300 and S-400 air defense missiles repurposed for ground strikes.

The shift is exposing a growing vulnerability in Ukraine's air defense network. Unlike drones and cruise missiles, ballistic missiles can only be reliably intercepted by a limited number of advanced systems, primarily the US-made Patriot with PAC-3 interceptors, which remain in short supply in the country. 

Ukraine has urged international partners to provide more of these interceptors, but these efforts have not led to any major supply breakthroughs and have so far not made a significant difference.

The trend towards ballistic missile use suggests Russia is increasingly exploiting one of the few remaining gaps in Ukraine's air defense shield.

While Ukraine continues to destroy large numbers of drones and cruise missiles, the growing use of ballistic missiles is placing mounting pressure on its most limited and hardest-to-replace interceptor stocks, all while causing mass civilian casualties and major damage to cities across the country.