Russian Shahid crashed in Ukraine.
Ukrainian National Police Photos
According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, 400 Iranian-made Shahed attack drones were blown up in a Ukrainian military attack on a warehouse in southern Russia. That’s nearly 5 percent of the 440-pound Shahad Russia has deployed so far in its 31-month war against Ukraine.
A video of a fire near Oktyabrsky appears to support the attack. “An accurate hit on the target was recorded,” the staff officer said. “A secondary explosion was observed.”
The propeller-driven, satellite-guided Shahed, developed by Iran’s Shahed Aviation Industries, is one of Russia’s main weapons for deep attacks on Ukrainian cities. Since acquiring the first Shahed from Iran in 2022, Russia has launched more than 8,000 explosive drones.
Ukrainian air defenses shot down most of the Shaheds deployed by Russian forces that night. Ukrainian forces have destroyed 91 percent of the shahids that have entered the country since March, according to a Defense News tally.
However, nine out of 100 broke through and attacked homes and businesses with 110-pound warheads, indiscriminately injuring and killing. In the three months ending August 31, Russian airstrikes killed nearly 600 Ukrainian civilians and injured 2,700 others.
Detonating 400 Shaheds should slow the pace of Russian attacks. “If the Shahed storage base is destroyed, the chances of the Russian occupiers to terrorize the civilian population of Ukrainian cities and villages will be significantly reduced,” the Kiev General Staff said.
But it’s a temporary victory. Moscow can always get more drones from Tehran. Copies are also being produced at a factory in Tatarstan, eastern Russia. The Kremlin paid $1.7 billion in part to secure permission for Shahed’s local gatherings of up to 6,000 people.
It is unclear how the Ukrainians managed to attack the drone cache. The General Staff claimed that the attack was carried out by Ukraine’s Ministry of Armed Forces and Counter-Terrorism. Oktyabrsky is just 220 miles from the front lines in eastern Ukraine, and within range of a wide range of Ukrainian weapons.
But perhaps we can exclude Ukraine’s best Western weapons: the U.S. Army Tactical Missile System rocket, the British Storm Shadow cruise missile, and the French SCALP-EG cruise missile. Washington DC, London, and Paris continue to deny Kiev permission to use these weapons in attacks on Russian territory.
However, there are no restrictions on Ukrainian munitions. Ukraine’s Neptune cruise missile could reach southern Russia. And long-range attack drones developed by Ukraine’s Intelligence Directorate can have a range of hundreds of miles beyond Oktyabrsky.
The attack on the Shahed warehouse is part of a broader trend. Rather than spend expensive air defense missiles shooting down drones near their targets, the Ukrainians are seeking to attack the “left side of the boom,” to borrow a U.S. military idiom. In other words, they are trying to attack Russian military ammunition before it can fire it.
Shahed is not the only target. The Ukrainian raid also detonated a Russian stockpile of satellite-guided glide bombs. Last week, Ukrainian drones struck a Russian air base near Voronezh, 190 miles north of Ukraine’s northern border with Russia, reportedly targeting a warehouse full of bombs.
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