Ukraine forms new helicopter units to fight off Russia’s nightly drone attacks

• Ukraine will form new helicopter units to shoot down Russian drones, Zelenskyy announced this week.
• Helicopters have become a vital part of Ukraine’s air defense amid a worsening Russian drone threat.
• Kyiv’s top general said they can sometimes shoot down as many as 40% of the drones in their area.

Ukraine will form new helicopter units to shoot down exploding Russian drones, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced this week, as Kyiv looks to aircraft for support in defending the skies.

“We determined how to expand the capabilities of army aviation to protect against drones,” Zelenskyy said after meeting with military officials on Monday. “Additional helicopter groups will be formed.”

In a statement published on the Telegram messaging platform, he said Ukraine is working with its international partners to secure “more necessary types of aircraft.” He did not provide additional details about how many new helicopter groups would be formed.

Helicopters have become an essential part of Ukraine’s air defenses as Russia has ramped up the production of its notorious one-way attack drones, strikes exacting a worsening toll on cities and civilian infrastructure.

Ukraine’s military commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said last month that helicopters can sometimes shoot down as many as 40% of the Russian drones in their coverage areas, depending on the weather.

Syrskyi told reporters that Ukraine is “scaling up this direction” and needs its helicopters to be equipped with technology that allows them to spot threats around the clock and in all weather conditions.

Ukraine’s top general also described plans at the time to develop light-engine aircraft with machine guns to intercept Russian drones.

Russia regularly alters its Shahed routes to stymie Ukrainian defenses. Helicopters can more rapidly respond to radar-detected drone threats than truck-mounted gun crews.

Russia has invested heavily in its drone operations over the past year. It now produces around 4,000 drones a month at its factories, and regularly attacks Ukraine with hundreds of them in a single night. Western intelligence has warned that this could eventually increase to thousands.

Russia has also expanded its drone bases and launch sites in recent months, further underscoring how the country intends to rely on cheap weapons to bombard Ukraine at long range.

These developments, and worsening attacks, have pushed Ukraine to seek out cost-efficient air defenses that match the cheap drone threat without being forced to rely on solely on very expensive guided missiles fired from ground launchers and fighter jets.

Helicopters, like the Soviet-era Mil Mi-24 gunship, have emerged as one solution at Ukraine’s disposal; the military has published several videos this year showing fixed-wing aircraft shooting down Russian drones. Crew members have filmed the use of Gatling guns and door-mounted machine guns.

But Kyiv has also identified another promising solution: interceptor drones, which can hunt and kill Russian drones mid-flight. Ukraine’s defense industry has ramped up production of these systems, which are intended to cost roughly the same as their targets — Russian drones are estimated to be worth tens of thousands of dollars — and be deployable at scale.

Zelenskyy, in his Telegram statement on Monday, said “maximum production volumes” of interceptor drones are needed.

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