Faster, deadlier Russian drones shift warfare into horrifying new phase

A new level of horror is unfolding over the skies of Ukraine.

Waves of new jet-powered Russian drones are screaming towards cities at hundreds of kilometres per hour, slamming into bridges and buildings in broad daylight.

They fly faster, higher and are harder to shoot down than previous models, and Ukraine's defences are struggling to keep up.

The weapons are the latest evolution of cheap, one-way attack drones used extensively throughout the war.

Until now, the propeller-driven Geran-2 has been Russia's main weapon of choice for mass long-range drone attacks.

Based on the Iranian-designed Shahed-136 with its distinctive 3.5-metre triangular frame, the drones travel at about 185km/h.

Carrying a 50kg warhead behind an aerodynamic nose, they dive at targets and explode on impact in kamikaze-style strikes.

Ukraine pioneered defences against propeller-style drones which worked against 90 per cent of the older Shahed technology. So, Russia responded with jet power.

The original Geran-4 has a Chinese-made turbojet engine, allowing it to travel nearly three times faster than its predecessors.

The airframe has been reinforced to carry explosives nearly double the weight and withstand the engine's power.

The new Geran-5 blurs the lines between drone and cruise missile.

It is also jet-powered, allowing it to reach an estimated top speed of around 600km/h, with a range of up to 1,000km.

At about six metres tall, it is a lot larger than the other drones. And it can hit altitudes of 6,000m, beyond the reach of typical Ukrainian defences and sensors.

"The new generations of drones represent a growing threat to Ukraine's air defences and to Ukrainian people," says Oleksandra Molloy, senior lecturer in aviation at UNSW and a leading expert in drone warfare.

Living with 20-hour air raids

"Air alerts are almost always on," resident Svitlana Iukhymovych tells the ABC from her Kyiv apartment.

"They come on and then they're off. They're off for 15 minutes and then they're back on again as another batch of drones is flying in."

As drones roar overhead, ballistic missiles can be heard hitting targets "like a crack of thunder" in the distance, adding to civilians' constant state of fear.

"We're all mad in here," Svitlana says, while documenting the torturous sounds of another sleepless night.

In wide use since about midway through this year, the jet-powered drones have enabled Russia to significantly escalate terror tactics in Kyiv.

For several months, civilians have endured large-scale drone and missile attacks almost every night. Now there are continuous strikes throughout the day.

Air-raid sirens sound for up to 20 hours, regularly forcing public transport to stop and businesses to close as people seek shelter.

Russia launched about 1,500 jet-powered drones across the country in July, according to Ukrainian officials.

By September, that number had increased to 3,500, raising concerns Moscow may have stockpiled the drones along with hundreds of ballistic missiles ahead of winter.

"What we had not fully anticipated was how quickly Russia would develop these jet-powered drones and use them to target everything," Ukraine's Minister of Economy Oleksandr Kravchenko said after a drone hit Kyiv's National Academy of Sciences building last month.

Satellite images show Russia built a new major base in the south-western Rostov region bordering Ukraine in just six weeks, which is reportedly capable of launching large numbers of jet-powered drones.

Defence analysts identified eight launch platforms on the western side, with rails installed on two and construction continuing on others.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was planning to spend $US12 billion ($17.3 billion) on the production the jet-powered weapons and other types of attack drones next year.

Ukraine is scrambling to prototype new interceptor technologies.

Last month, Mr Zelenskyy said only about 57 per cent of jet-powered drones were being shot down. That has risen to approximately 75 per cent, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

With schools, shopping centres and key bridges hit, Svitlana says there is the feeling "a drone could hit you at any point, anywhere".

"But sometimes I just choose to ignore the threat and keep going," the 33-year-old says.

"I feel like this is a challenge for all of us now in Kyiv, where sometimes you just have to block this constant fear of death."

Ukraine is also waging its own large-scale drone attacks deep into Russia, targeting Moscow and surrounding regions.

With its own growing arsenal of cheap, long-range drones, Ukraine has been taking aim at oil refineries and energy sites.

At least 496 Russian civilians were killed between January and September, according to figures recorded by the UN human rights office (OHCHR).

Across Ukraine, UN monitors verified 2,222 civilians killed in 2026. 

Response time drops to seconds

Russia's jet-powered drones are outpacing Ukraine's air defences, with the window to respond significantly reduced.

"Mobile teams now, depending on when they're alerted, can have a matter of seconds to try and intercept these jet-powered drones," says David Kirichenko, an associate research fellow specialising in warfare and autonomous systems at the Henry Jackson Society, a London-based think tank.

"They're getting up to the speeds and acting more like a cruise missile rather than a traditional drone."

Valeriia Oshevska has been volunteering with a mobile fire group in Kyiv at least one night a week since December.

With her husband serving on the frontlines, after she puts her two young children to bed, she gets into uniform and joins her unit for "duties".

"We are trying to shoot down the Shaheds," the 36-year-old tells the ABC.

"They're attacking Kyiv every day and every night … so from 7pm till 7am I'm there."

Brandishing machine guns to fire at low-flying drones, Valeriia's unit is made up of "ordinary" people from Kyiv.

"People who are working in the university and who are teachers and journalists," she says.

"You can still be very helpful even if you are not in the military, but you're just a civilian."

Across the country, the groups play a key role in Ukraine's layered air defence, but Valeriia says the drones are increasingly beyond reach.

"Now drones are too far [away], so we can't work on them," she says.

"They're three kilometres high or seven kilometres high."

Russia has been taking aim at Ukraine's energy grid and plunging cities into darkness.

Valeriia is determined to keep working with the unit as long as possible but is worried about the winter.

"It's a very hard experience," she says.

"We are here thinking of plan B, what we're going to do if it'll be hard to live a normal life when it will be no electricity, no heating, no water."

Drones part of 'dangerous' network

The drones have a range of technical advancements for anti-jamming, navigation and precision strikes.

Dr Molloy says the new Geran variants also operate on a "mesh network" that allows the drones to communicate and re-program routes if they encounter Ukrainian defences.

They are becoming "much more dangerous platform", she says.

"They are no longer simply one-way drones flying a pre-programmed route and striking a fixed target."

To go after the drones, Ukraine is using helicopters and fighter jets, which are already low on interceptor munitions. 

Yevhen Karas, the commander of Ukraine's 413th Separate Regiment of Unmanned Systems Forces, says the drones are giving Russia an "advantage".

But describing the war as a game of "cat-and-mouse" innovation, he expects it won't be long until Ukraine develops a scalable solution.

"I think three, four months and we get significantly [a] jump in [the] quantity of destroyed jet Gerans in the air," he says.

Risks stem beyond Ukraine

The new drone capabilities come at a time of rising tensions between NATO and Russia.

European intelligence officials have warned of a possible Russian drone or missile attack on NATO territory in the coming months.

Over the years, Russia has shown its ability to "tease and poke" at "gaps in European air defence" by sending drones into NATO airspace, military analyst Mr Kirichenko says.

"I think the Russians are testing NATO boundaries … We might get to a point where the Russians are flying these drones further and further out, potentially closing certain European airports," he says.

President Vladimir Putin last month said Russia was not preparing for "any kind" of conflict with Europe.

Samuel Bendett, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security think tank, says the "claimed" range of Geran-5s is 1,000km, but the "realistic" use over Ukraine may be less than that.

Any real threat to Europe depends on where the drones are launched from, he tells the ABC.

Iran has also reportedly asked Russia for its latest Geran technology, which Mr Kirichenko says was a natural progression given their history-sharing lessons in drone warfare.

Across the Middle East, the United States and allied Gulf states were already struggling with low-cost solutions to defend against Iran's propeller-driven Shahed drones.

The drones have caused widespread destruction, hitting international airports and military bases across the region.

Dr Molloy says the Shahed-type drones "represent a threat to any country".

China and the US have developed copycat versions of Iranian Shaheds, while Russia has reportedly been transferring the drone technology to North Korea.

The rapid evolution and mass production of the cheap weapons should be a wake-up call to Western countries still heavily investing in "traditional, expensive, high-end systems", Dr Molloy says.

"Drone warfare has developed exponentially … We need to appreciate that this additional layer of war has been added."

Mr Kirichenko says more countries need to work together to build solutions, because low-cost drone warfare is "a problem class of its own" that is only going to continue accelerating.

"In any future war, given the manufacturing capability that China and its allies have, will continue to be a bigger and bigger problem headed into the future," he says.