Putin rains down Iranian kamikaze drones on Ukraine in brutal retaliation for Crimea humiliation

With a range of more than 600 miles, the explosive-laden Iranian Shahed-136 UAVs can ‘hang’ over potential targets for hours before being slammed directly at enemy soldiers, vehicles or buildings from above – causing an explosion.

Reports from Ukraine suggest that the drones caused serious damage to Kiev’s armed forces, as well as Ukraine’s infrastructure.

Ukrainians who have witnessed attacks by the drones say they make a recognizable noise and sound like “motorbikes” in the sky, with some soldiers calling it “the flying lawnmower.”

While the drones can be devastating to their targets, soldiers have said they are vulnerable to small arms fire. On Saturday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine posted a video to Facebook showing a smoking wreckage alleged to be one of the drones. The post said it was shot down by a machine gun.

“This is a primitive handmade product,” said Yuriy Ignat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force. Radio Free Europe (RFE) last week.

“It’s not high-tech assembly line production like the… [Turkish-made] Bayraktar or American and Israeli [unmanned aerial vehicles],’ he added.

Ukrainian residents described the drone strikes to RFE. “You hear the roar. At first I just heard them, but then I saw one fly by and then explode,” said one man.

Another said: ‘There was a buzz that woke me up. I remember thinking, “What’s that?” The sound approached and then there was an explosion near the house.’

According to reports, the first recorded use of the drones in Yemen was in Houthi-controlled areas. Now Iran is said to have sold hundreds of drones to Russia.

Tehran has denied selling the deadly ammunition to the Kremlin, but there is mounting evidence that Moscow’s armies have been using them against the Ukrainian army since September to make up for the lack of artillery firepower.

Ukrainian military officials say the drones are cheaper and less sophisticated than cruise missiles, but could have a similarly devastating effect on their target.

Ukraine’s military leaders worry that if they are not given an effective countermeasure, the drones could destroy their West-supplied artillery, which has been successfully used to push Russian forces back east.

The nearly 12-foot-long Shahed 136 is designed with a delta wing shape, with stabilizing rudders at the top of the aircraft. The fuselage is located in the center of the drone and is blended with the nearly four feet long wings, giving it an elegant-looking shape.

The explosives are located in the nose of the drone, as well as the technology that guides it to its targets for a precision strike. The motor is located on the back of the drone and drives two blade propellers.

It has been compared to an engine you would find on a lawnmower or moped.

‘The engine sounds like a’ [motorbike]. You can see it if it’s a few kilometers away,” a Ukrainian soldier told RFE only as Magyar.

Kiev said 83 rockets or drones were launched against the country on Monday morning, hitting the capital and several other cities, killing civilians. Pictured: Cars set on fire after Russian missile strike in Kiev, Ukraine on October 10

“That’s my advice to the military. They fly low and are slow, so you can shoot them down,” he said, noting that the drones are usually used against larger targets. “They carry such a load of explosives that there’s no point in using them against infantry.”

Overall, the drone weighs 440 lbs and can fly at speeds close to 120 mph.

To overwhelm the air defenses, multiple drones (batches of five and more) are launched simultaneously from the same rack. They are fired almost horizontally with missile launch assistance.

The rocket is tossed overboard on takeoff and the motor takes over once airborne.

On Friday, Oleksandr Starukh – Zaporizhzhya’s regional governor – said such drones were causing damage to facilities in the city. On Wednesday, other Ukrainian officials said the drones were used to attack the town of Bila Tserkva, 80 kilometers south of Kiev.

The attacks destroyed several buildings in the city, News week reported.

The weapons are unlikely to significantly affect the course of the war, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said after last week’s strikes.

“They have deployed many drones against civilian targets in back areas, probably in the hope of generating non-linear effects through terror. Such attempts fail,” the think tank’s analysts wrote.

Drones have played an important role in the war in Ukraine so far. The United States has supplied the Ukrainian military with switchblade drones, while Kiev has also deployed the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 – which fires guided missiles – with great success.