Drone hunters are used to defend Ukraine against Russian kamikaze attacks. (Image: Getty)
is utilising impressive drone hunters to neutralise kamikaze attacks from despite some of the equipment used being nearly 80 years old.
revealed that his country suffered 10 times the number of kamikaze drone attacks in autumn 2024 than in autumn 2023. The daily record was broken in November when launched a staggering 188 drones across the border.
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) since turned to Iran for supplies in the wake of stringent sanctions imposed by the West.
The Shahed-136s is the weapon of choice, and Russian engineers are reportedly adapting them to make them even more deadly and increasing their range.
Instead of using the highly expensive US Patriot air defence systems to shoot them down at an eye-watering cost of £3 million per missile, is relying on volunteers with outdated equipment to track and neutralise them.
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The drone hunters are sometimes part-time volunteers. (Image: Getty)
One of these brave Ukrainians is 43-year-old Natalya Kovalenko, a judge by day and drone hunter by night who uses a 1946 twin-mounted machine gun that she has to bash with a hammer when it glitches.
She told : “It doesn’t matter that our weapons are old. The
Kovalenko’s 78-year-old weapon has been fitted with a night-vision camera, while her fellow troops use spotlights, walkie-talkies, and another machine gun, this time from 1964.
The mother of two undertakes gruelling 24-hour shifts as part of her duties with the Mriya Volunteer Brigade, on after pro-Russian MP Oleksandr Dubinsky called for a presidential election to vote out Zelensky.
When drones are set for Kyiv, they often take a longer route than necessary in order to confuse air defence systems or fly along noisy roads and rivers to hide their sounds.
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also sends decoys made of white foam wrapped in foil, again designed to trick and distract defence systems. Western officials have previously estimated as many as 60% of drones are decoys.
Serhiy Sas is another judge turned part-time drone hunter who revealed the makeup of the team mainly consists of people with legal backgrounds.
He told the outlet: “We have 10 MPs and more than 50 judges. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, we realised that if Kyiv fell there would be no parliament, no courts, and we would be the first people
“We needed to protect ourselves. We aim for the drone’s engine or its explosives. That’s the only way to ensure it gets destroyed. Each drone we shoot down is a saved life. The challenge is to keep our concentration. All night.”
‘s interception rate of Shahed drones was upwards of 90% last month, surprisingly high considering the age of some of its defence systems.