Russia's increasing number of jet-powered drones means that Moscow can now launch constant day-time attacks on the Ukrainian capital. For the past few days, the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv has come under sustained daylight attacks with drones and missiles pounding the city, and forcing its population, again and again, to seek shelter underground. Kyiv is no stranger to aerial attacks, of course. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it has been a frequent target of Russian strikes that have claimed scores of lives. But the recent assaults are different. Daylight strikes on the capital and its environs, which were something of a rarity, have become increasingly common. A woman was injured by a jet-powered drone on September 1, in the sixth consecutive daylight attack on the city involving hundreds of drones. A headline in the Kyiv Post newspaper on day five of the campaign described it as "unprecedented". The attacks, coupled with night-time strikes, mean that Kyiv's population has had to endure around-the-clock assaults, testing the limits of its famed resilience. So why has Russia adopted the tactic? A key reason for this is the increasing numbers of jet-powered drones Moscow now has at its disposal. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, wrote on September 1 that in July Russia used five times more jet-powered drones than it did in July 2025. These are cheap and easy to produce and therefore reduce Russia's dependence on expensive ballistic missiles for strikes on Ukrainian cities. Their increasing availability gives Russia a potency it had previously lacked and therefore tactics have evolved to encompass their capabilities. Fast and hard The jet-powered Geran-4 and Geran-5 drones travel at speeds far greater than the piston-engined Shahed drones. The Geran-5, for example, can hit 600kmh, making it lightning quick in comparison to the Shahed's 190 kmh. This makes it far harder to shoot down than slow-moving Shaheds, which are easy prey for air defenses especially during the day. Colonel Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, was cited by ISW as saying on September 1 that the interception rate of jet-powered drones was at around 60% compared to 90-95% for the older piston-powered ones. The survivability of the Geran 4 and 5 during daylight attacks no doubt factors into Russian thinking, as does the possibility that a sustained campaign could reduce the interception rate still further. Moscow has demonstrated by its use of consecutive daily attacks that it has shifted tactics from launching single mass blitzes to a campaign of attrition designed to wear down Ukraine's air defenses. "Russia is trying to turn the question from whether Ukraine can intercept 80-90% of drones into whether it can do so every day for weeks and months without exhausting disproportionately expensive resources," Ihnat told a Ukrainian television news channel on August 31. "This is no longer simply a matter for air defense. It is a matter for the war economy and the industrial production of interceptors," he added. The day-after-day attacks also mean that the hard-pressed air-defense crews have little time to rest, and re-set and re-stock equipment after dealing with night-time raids. The Russians have also started to launch drones in waves rather than a single attack. The news site Ukrainska Pravda wrote that on August 27, for example, Kyiv received 13 air-raid warnings in 24 hours, the highest figure since the first days of the war. 'Putin wants to make life in Kyiv unbearable' So along with material depletion of resources the defenders also have to cope with enhanced levels of psychological stress as Russia tries to overwhelm them with constant attacks. Along with grinding down Ukraine's air-defense capacity, Moscow appears intent on wearing down the morale of Kyiv's population in the hope that this, in turn, will pressure Volodymyr Zelenskyy into a peace agreement with Russia. "Russia is carrying out daytime attacks on Kyiv because it has the technical and economic capacity to do so, with the primary goal of destabilizing the civilian population in order to pressure the government into making concessions on Ukraine’s part during the negotiation process," Vladyslav Klochkov, a former major general in the Ukrainian Army now at the National Defence University of Ukraine, told TVP World. "Specifically, the surrender of territories in the Donetsk region that have not been captured." His words were echoed by Gabrielius Landsbergis, a former Lithuanian foreign minister, who told TVP World that Russia was trying to "terrorize people, in the hope that the support for the war would diminish and Zelenskyy would be forced to accept the Russian terms." The daytime attacks have the potential to grind down the will of Kyiv's people. Although they have endured constant attacks since the start of the war and freezing conditions in the winter owing to hits on energy infrastructure, the daytime strikes can increase the pressure. “Putin is doing everything he can to make life in Kyiv unbearable,” Halyna Yanchenko, a Ukrainian MP told TVP World. “The main purpose of these Russian attacks is simply to terrorize civilians. Russia wants to destroy even the sense of normal life in Kyiv. Life is very hard for civilians right now. It is hard for mothers who cannot even take their children to school. On September 1st in Kyiv, for example, Ukrainian children had to spend time in bomb shelters. So I believe this is pure and open terrorism. “I honestly do not understand what else the world is waiting for before taking tougher action against Russia.” This disruption to daily life could lead to people leaving the city, especially during the winter when power shortages can turn homes into ice boxes; and this may be another Russian calculation. People leaving the capital would be a blow to Ukrainian prestige, and could well register with Donald Trump, the American president whose foreign policies, according to critics, appear sometimes dictated by a desire to back 'winners' rather than provide consistent and principled support for allies. Countermeasures Ukraine is working on new interceptors designed to counter jet-powered drones. On August 30, Yevhenii Khmara, the Ukrainian defense minister, said four systems that could bring down high-speed drones were undergoing field testing. If they prove capable, the challenge will then be to produce them in their thousands. The Ukrainian Armed Forces will also target any Russian facility within range of its long-range weapons it deems integral to drone production. This could reduce the number of drones Moscow has at its disposal. Russia's drone production is also dependent on China. In July, the Institute for Science and Technology, a Washington-based institute, wrote that "Chinese components and production equipment remain central to Russian drone supply chains." This leaves production possibly vulnerable to trade friction induced by factors such as the effects of secondary sanctions and the shifting sands of international politics. But, for now, Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities subject to daytime attacks will just have to adapt and endure.
